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Garden gazing balls by Sula Bermúdez-Silverman are grasped by the upright claws of an imperial eagle, the spheres filled with homey substances like hair gel and studded with effete fragments of colonial treasure — bits of coral or silver sugar tongs.

Wednesday’s Miss Manners column incorrectly stated that if a crouton falls down the dress of the lady seated next to you, etiquette dictates removing it with the sugar tongs.

“Three minutes, who’s up?” he announced, upending an extraordinary ormolu-gilt hourglass and displaying a boiled egg with a pair of silver sugar tongs.

He was holding the sugar tongs in his hands, tenderly stroking their curved handles.

“Yes, he was really taken by the sugar tongs,” Riccio answered.