Every dealer keeps two inventories: the one in the shop, and the one in the head, of everything we put down and walked away from. Vienna sits at the top of my second list.
It was a marquetry writing box, walnut and satinwood, with its original key and a hidden drawer that still smelled faintly of ink. The asking price was fair. My budget for the trip was already spent on a crate of Biedermeier chairs, and I was sensible.
The moral, if there is one
Sensible is a fine way to run a business and a poor way to build a collection. The chairs sold within the month. The box I will be describing to strangers for the rest of my life.