During our private tours, we sometimes come across clients who are looking for the extraordinary. Carlos was our secret weapon. He was both personable and cultured. Knowledgeable and skilled, he was able to amaze the keenest explorers and adventurers, but also the toughest of children.
Carlos, who used to hide behind door number 20 of the rua da Vinha, has left us. Our tribute will not be even a crumb of what he gave us.
He was a collector of beautiful things and memories, and had some very rare pieces in his bazaar. From a Goering sceptre, to the military uniforms of the black shirts, the Salazarian youth, or the colonial wars, all stored in his cupboard, his taste for history never betrayed an ounce of belief. Several film costume designers have called on his unique pieces.
His shed also contained a number of incongruous objects : beautiful radio sets, well-preserved maps, old flags and photos that cannot be forgotten.
In this joyful souk, one could not but be amazed and above all bewildered by this pile of tiles ready to be restored. That was his real job. They were piled up and came from all over the world. On their identity card, one should not be surprised to see several centuries of travel.
A specialist, he had a colour palette in his workshop where he could mix up to 10-12 colours to achieve the desired blue. or what a layman sees as white turns out to be for him the real complexity of a speckling of a multitude of blackish grey and cyan pigments.
Thanks to him, I understood the magnitude of the imitator’s task. He has to know how to master dozens, hundreds of brush techniques, full and loose strokes. The fact of appropriating the periods where the thickness of a tile is as important as the materials cannot fail him. Spread over centuries of practice, his knowledge is measured by his humility.
His talent was unique. His wish was to share it. A heart attack prevented him from doing so.
If you are reading me Carlos, it is because an old friend of yours is translating… I am asking you to pass on your knowledge and your passion to a patient youngster. You have left too much of an impression on me for your experience to go to waste.
Only then do I wish you a good rest. I have never seen you perform this activity. That is why you have marked me for eternity.
Long life and good luck in the afterlife !