It was raining, the market was packing up, and a man with a van full of house-clearance boxes wanted four euros for a brass lamp with a frayed cord and fifty years of tarnish.
What four euros bought
An afternoon with wire wool and a new cord, and the lamp turned out to be solid brass with a cast base you could anchor a boat with. It has sat on my desk through every catalogue I have written since.
You never find the good piece. You find the piece, and then the work makes it good.