It resembled an ornate carriage or cart with curving metalwork of ivy and leaves, like filigree, and burnished wood worn smooth by the touch of many hands. It was a very early form of the fire engine—essentially a large, horse-drawn pump with a hose for fighting fires. But you could be forgiven for mistaking it for a piece of art. There was a pump attached to the middle of the cart, rising like a small tree from its center. Its branches were the long handles that a team of men on either side would have worked, hoisting up and down, to draw water from a nearby lake or river into the hose that could be pointed at the flames.
In the same museum, I also saw an 18th-century musket. The stock was long and slender, like the trunk of a sapling. It looked light as air, a weapon so supple it could be aimed just by thinking. Both wood and metal, weaving in and out of each other, were delicately engraved with beautiful botanical designs.
