Carafes like antlers

Etienne Meneau's "Strange Carafes" are pricey, hand-blown art-glass wine-decanters in the form of roots, or upside-down antlers. Pretty awesome -- though I'm fairly certain I'd turn mine into deadly shards (natural clumsiness) within minutes. Link (via Neatorama)

[#1 posted by Alys , July 12, 2008 8:45 AM]

I wouldn't dare even have that in my flat, not with two cats running around. Looks cool though.

[#2 posted by Hanglyman , July 12, 2008 9:01 AM]

Looks fun to use, and insanely difficult to clean afterwards.

[#3 posted by toolbag , July 12, 2008 9:09 AM]

Yeah, you'd need a 3' pipe cleaner and a lot of patience to keep it from being permanently tinted red. I don't think it'd do much for oxygenating the wine either with so little surface area.

But, my god are they beautiful. If someone were to give me one as a gift I'd certainly use it (every time they came over).

[#4 posted by Takuan , July 12, 2008 9:09 AM]

what? you can't just lick out the dregs?

[#5 posted by Takuan , July 12, 2008 9:14 AM]

just fill with TSP solution, let stand and rinse

[#6 posted by Anonymous , July 12, 2008 9:20 AM]

antlers? First thing that I thought of was arteries and blood veins. Maybe fractals.

[#7 posted by Randwulf , July 12, 2008 9:39 AM]

With the antler-like look this would be perfect for holding your Jagermeister!

[#8 posted by febryle , July 12, 2008 9:40 AM]

As a art lover, this is quite cool. As a wine drinker, this is simply silly. For proper aeration, you want as much surface area as possible in contact with air. Hence, most decanters are wide at the bottom. This piece would accomplish little, but it sure does look cool

[#9 posted by chimera , July 12, 2008 9:44 AM]

It puts me in mind of a Fulgarite

[#10 posted by lakelady , July 12, 2008 10:12 AM]

antlers? ok, but looks like blood vessels to me.

[#11 posted by Takuan , July 12, 2008 10:31 AM]

you mean it's not intended for ichor?

[#12 posted by Lobster , July 12, 2008 10:57 AM]

Very cool but I do agree it'd be maddening to clean and very easy to break (and if it breaks a little it breaks a lot). On the other hand it would go well with my hills like white elephants.

[#13 posted by Pipenta , July 12, 2008 11:31 AM]

Nice.

Seems more like tree roots or branches or even coral to me than antlers.

It wants a prettier stopper.

[#14 posted by buddy66 , July 12, 2008 12:15 PM]

Man, that's a long way from a Venice West oceanwalk bench and a 99 cent half gallon of Red Mountain. Sigh.

[#15 posted by membrain , July 12, 2008 12:54 PM]

They look more like veins to me and please allow me to say that these are EF-ing amazing!! Thanks Cory for posting!

[#16 posted by jonathan_v , July 12, 2008 1:01 PM]

They're carafes, not decanters.

They also look a lot more like bronchial tubes to me too.

[#17 posted by anthropomorphictoast , July 12, 2008 2:49 PM]

@#10: That's what I was thinking.
Put that with the anatomically correct heart chocolate, and you have a romantic evening set for that special cardiologist in your life.

[#18 posted by Moon , July 12, 2008 4:51 PM]

If you have to ask how to clean it, you can't afford it.

/It's a "design" thing, people. It's not supposed to make sense or be useful. Sheesh.

[#19 posted by Andreas , July 12, 2008 5:42 PM]

I think that if you can afford €2000 (and up) carafes you can afford to hire the pixies needed to clean them as well.

[#20 posted by yannish , July 12, 2008 8:50 PM]

Art glass, now this is something I understand.

Drioli and Luxardo had been doing similar things fin the 50's and 60's, working with the artisans of Murano to create wine carafes in weird and wonderful shapes.

http://www.drioli.com/

for an example of an Egypitan Head Luxardo Carafe:
http://www.fossilfly.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=455

Luxardo is still around:
http://www.luxardo.it/

and a Drioli Swan decanter from the 60's
http://www.fossilfly.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=1689

I wish companies were still doing this type of stuff.

[#21 posted by TheBuckett , July 12, 2008 9:39 PM]

haha, ok. I know this is going to really scream stereo type , but I think that would be a really great flask to serve maple syrup in.

[#22 posted by Bonnie , July 12, 2008 9:46 PM]

Looks like I found a new vessel to drink TruBlood out of.

[#23 posted by kyoorius , July 12, 2008 11:06 PM]

would look pretty neat if you dropped chips of dry ice down to the bottom of each branch, then filled with liquid... or alka seltzer if the bubbling was too violent..

[#24 posted by sacha , July 13, 2008 5:45 AM]

If you want to discover more information about Etienne Meneau and its stanges carafes, feel free to click right here:

http://blog.youwinemotion.tv/index.php?post/2008/07/08/Etranges-Carafes-2eme-vague-de-creation

And never forget: Cheers!

Sacha.

[#25 posted by adam , July 13, 2008 7:49 AM]

#8 right on. These sure look cool, but not terribly useful for wine.

[#26 posted by Allegra , July 13, 2008 7:57 AM]

I can picture the Master drinking out of it in a Buffy episode.

[#27 posted by dculberson , July 13, 2008 10:07 AM]

If it's Pyrex or other lab grade glass-like-material, then it would actually be pretty damn tough and not that easy to break.

[#28 posted by IvyMike , July 13, 2008 3:09 PM]

Dishwasher safe?

[#29 posted by WarLord , July 13, 2008 7:41 PM]

Greetings

Saw this on Iron Chef it was the Milk challenge and this antler thingy was filled with milk

They were not that damn careful with it so it might be lab glass

Certainly looked stylish in kitchen stadium

Enjoy the journey

WarLord