Agave Coupe

The agave waits sometimes thirty years before it flowers, just once, then dies, having spent its life raising in the drought a rosette of thick, pointed leaves. Chrystiane Charles has cast the tuft in gilt bronze, blades opened in a fan around the heart, each chased to the tip. The rosette rests on a cube base of pale brass. The metal shade, gold-ringed, sets its roundness above this sculptural sheaf.