If anyone knows anything about me, they know I love words. Word play, word origin, words with multiple meanings. Well, the Netherlands team, referred to as Laranja Mecanica or "Clockwork Orange" for their precision passing, can certainly have more than a "bit" part in this World Cup if they can "curb" the most successful football team in World Cup history: the "Little Canaries" of Brazil.
If the precision and detail with which the Dutch designed their bits to curb their horses are any indication of what they're capable of, as demonstrated by these fabulous prints from an original 17th century engraving (yes, indeed from the 1600s!), Laranja Mecanica, like a big fat orange cat, should certainly put the bite on the Brasilians. I'll even bet a bit on it. Should I lose, I'll devote a few "bits" of web space to my South American neighbors.
If you don't care an ounce about the World Cup, then just imagine how wonderful these would look on an austere wall inside a renovated farmhouse... wide plank reclaimed pine floors... or perhaps that perfect Paris flat with polished concrete floors and rustic barn doors rolling on a metal bar. These Dutch prints are keepers! Eight in all. $375 each, from Irwinfeld Design, Stamford, Conn. www.irwinfeld.com.
