Victor Jennings, idling down the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, decided on impulse to enter the antiquities shop. Gilded letters in graceful script traced the name Gallantier Freres on the small shop front.
Gallantier FreresInside, Jennings found himself in a large, richly decorated salon, more gallery than shop. Heavy oriental rugs covered the floor. Niches, shelves and display cases, paved with blood-red velvet, contrasted dramatically with the stark, off-white walls and set off, with quiet elegance, the ancient objects exhibited upon them under the beneficent glow of hidden lighting.
These objects were of infinite variety, from a T’ang figurine to a Mayan stela, from shards of Hittite pottery to a broken-handled Mochica jug from the rainless littoral of pre-Inca Peru. With most of these an
