Hostesses Serafina Puchkina and Jed Dagger (left and right, below) welcomed the sizable and boisterous crowd and introduced the day's speaker,...
...Miss Canolli Capalini, the noted Babbage designer.
Miss Capalini began by describing the "Biedermeier stylization," which she characterized as "clean...simply made. Heavy, with very distinct lines," and created as a backlash against the more ornate styles of the previous period. According to Miss Capalini, this was an effort by the aristocracy of the time (the early to mid 19th century) to "make themselves seem more humble" as anti-aristocracy revolutions were sweeping Europe.
The table, pictured above, has a distinctive Steampunk-ish carving at the base, as several Salon participants noted. (The chair pictured below the table is one of Miss Capalini's own design.)
I sat (mostly) quietly, trying to take in the details. (Annoyingly, I crashed twice during the lecture, while I tried to take pictures. Pfui.)
I would not do justice to the talk, so I urge the interested reader to review the entire transcript, which will be available shortly at the Salon's Aetheric site.
The audience was generally informed, interested, and polite, asking Miss Capalini questions along the way. One urchin, a Master Streeter, who seemed known to the Babbagers, seemed unduly interested in elephants at the beginning of the talk, and was full of juvenile comments throughout. He was clearly in need of a good whipping, though his comments were generally taken in good spirits. [I realize this is Bob's regular schtick, so no letters telling me what an interfering interloper I am. - KJ] If I had the ear of Clockwinder Tenk, I might suggest that the urchins in Babbage are treated far too well, and need some discipline and toil to instill in them an appreciation for hard work and education!
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