Boneware

By 2000 bc the Yi people had a kingdom here, making bronze vessels and filling them with wine, and by Confucius’s time Qufu’s craftspeople made glass decorations, boneware chopsticks, and incense.

“The Nazis took the paintings out of the home. They made use of the objects, they auctioned them off, whatever. What did the Nazis do with chinaware?” Moser asked in exasperation, evoking an image of Gestapo thugs holding up fine boneware like cavemen trying to make sense of a microwave oven.

Three frayed leashes, each metal clasp a question mark, dresser-and-a-closet’s-worth of clothes, weathered high-top shoes, a kitchen clock, transistor radio, a sparse but matching set of boneware dishes, pasteboard box of hair barrettes.