Let me look into that…

~ This Reading Life

Once upon a time there used to be a lovely meme that I would join in occasionally called Wondrous Words Wednesday hosted by Bermuda Onion. It was a great way to deep dive into a word, phrase or saying that was unusual or unknown to me. Sadly, her blog has long since disappeared from view and I now find that I often clutter up my book responses with some of this research instead.

I’m not going to do this every week or on a particular day or even with every book I read, but sometimes I would like to explore or look into something new-to-me that pops up in the book I’m currently reading.

This month I have been reading Zola’s A Love Story for Zoladdiction month with Fanda. Early on, Zola provides a detailed description of the luxurious garden next door to the home of our protagonist, Hélène.

The Deberle’s back yard is a “typical bourgeois garden, with a lawn in the middle, and two circular flower beds on each side.” It comes complete with a Japanese pavilion containing “hardwood seats and jardinieres” and various other trinkets and knick-knacks where the family reclines to while away a lazy afternoon. At the back of the pavilion is a “huge magot in Meissen porcelain with legs folded, naked, and a protruding belly, laughed hysterically and nodded his head like a mad thing at the slightest touch.“

Two things: what are jardinieres and what is a magot?

  1. Jardinieres:
    • Firstly it is the feminine form of gardener.
    • In English it means a decorative flower box or planter, although the French use the word cachepot to describe the same thing.
    • The French save the word jardinieres for larger outdoor plant containers.
French Porcelain jardinières circa 1840-1880 (image source)
  • 2. Magot
    • French word for barbary ape.
    • In China these figures were considered good luck due to their ability to warn of earthquakes thanks to their disjointed head, tongue and hands.
    • They arrived in Europe at the end of the 17th century and became an aristocratic status symbol.
    • Due to their popularity, factories in Germany, France and Italy also began to make their own versions.
Meissen Porcelain Nodder in Seated Position (image source)

Have you read anything recently that references jardinieres or magot?

This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life recognises the continuous connection to Country, community and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They are the traditional custodians of the lands, seas, and skies on which we live and they are this nations first storytellers.

Published by This Reading Life

32 thoughts on “Let me look into that…”

  1. “magot” isn’t a word I’ve come across before but the description in the text gave me an idea how it would look. Based on your photo I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to acquire one for my garden – it looks quite ugly.

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  3. I’ve never seen a reference to a magot (although as these things go, now I probably will), but certainly I’ve seen references to jardinieres before.

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    1. That is curious; it must be related to the French word somehow as I cannot imagine that the story is actually about maggots!!

      A quick check on a translation site suggests that ‘magot’ is often used to refer to ‘loot’ or a ‘stash’ or ‘nest egg’.

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  5. I’d never come across the word magot before although I have seen one in Dresden not far from Meissen. Oddly, it was in a very large glass case at the top of one of the streets in the old town. Strikingly ugly, too!

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    1. Apparently there are also a pair sitting on the walls of Les Deux Magots Café in 6, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés (which opened in 1873 and became a hangout for writers and other literati – it’s the cafe that Hemingway mentions in A Moveable Feast).

      The cafe first opened in 1812 at 23 Rue de Buci on the site of an older drapery and novelty shop which took its name from a popular19th century play entitled Les Deux Magots de la Chine. When the cafe moved, they took the original figurines with them.

      They also instigated the Deux Magots literary prize (Prix des Deux Magots) which has been awarded to a French novel every year since 1933 at Les Deux Magots.

      It would seem that I can’t stop researching!!

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  6. I love words – I could guess at the first but its transference from person to object would have had me puzzled. Magot is new to me as it was to you, so thanks for the enlightenment!

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    1. My research also made me realise that Zola used these words very deliberately to create the sense of luxury and wealth on display in the Deberle’s garden (and home). Today Juliette Deberle would be a social media influencer 🙂

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    1. I had a rough idea of both from the context, but wanted to know for sure. I felt that Zola must have chosen his words carefully and that at the time, they would have been understood with all their subtle behind-the-scenes meanings.

      In 1850 they meant wealth and worldliness; nowadays we would see the colonialism at play in adopting trinkets in this way from Asia.

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  11. I too enjoyed you looking into words. I have a year to find a garden ornament for Milly’s new house, but not a magot. For the garden of her first house I gave her an emu made of scrap metal, a big success and maybe not one I’ll be able to repeat.

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  12. Pingback: A Love Story | Émile Zola – This Reading Life

  13. I have a jardiniere! Well, a reproduction one. This is it here: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/aynsley-pembroke-bone-china-1774189622 Unfortunately the image is poor, but this version I found has the branding that mine has ie a reproduction of an 18th century Aynsley design. I used to have a cyclamen (in a pot) in it, but now I just have it. I nearly let it go during our downsize because it is a reproduction, but it was Mum’s so it’s one of the many pieces of china I kept.

    I have never heard of a magot.

    I remember Bermuda Onion! The blogs that come and go eh?

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    1. We know all too well about special items inherited from our parents. We have a grandfather clock from my FIL, that has been sitting in the garage for 5 years. Thankfully we have some smaller pieces of crockery, vases etc that are easier keepsakes to hold on to so we don’t feel so bad about finally selling the clock.

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      1. Yes! I feel pain about some big pieces we had to move on – partly because of responsibility to the future. But kept a lot of crockery and used some favourite pieces for reading group last night! Every time I use it I think of the women in my life who loved and used those pieces.

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  14. As for “maggots” not “magots”, besides the “maggot” we all know, there is the famous “Mr Beveridge’s Maggot” which is danced, as I recollect in the 1995 P&P. It’s an English country dance that was probably devised by Mr Beveridge, a dance master , in the 17th century. “Maggot” means I understand “fancy” (Hmm … here is a definition from a Jane Austen site: “A Maggot when referred to in country dancing means An extravagant notion; a whim.)

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    1. Now that I would have enjoyed seeing (or even having a go at myself!) And thank you, this has given a golden opportunity to check out 3 versions of the dance on youtube – two from P&P and the lovely one performed in Emma.

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