Oh, Those Beautiful Killing Machines!

Are weapons of war things of beauty?

The Smithsonian Institution seems to think so. It’s hawking subscriptions to its air/space magazine with the advisory that among other things it will run stories on America’s "beloved warbirds." And the experts on the popular TV show on PBS, "Antiques Roadshow," just go gaga when someone brings in an engraved old Union or Confederate rifle in mint condition or an engraved Colt revolver that was presented to the Czar of Russia

Speaking of Colts, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford has mounted, for the second time, an all-inclusive exhibit on the life and times of Samuel Colt and his famous guns, which he sold both to the Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War. Isn’t that nice? Federal soldiers and Johnny rebs were both killing each other with guns made in Connecticut.

Neither the Smithsonian, the Rroadshow, nor the Atheneum seem to have any qualms displaying weapons of war as objects to be admired.

I’m not a big fan of the Roadshow, particularly when it interferes with my watching one of my favorite cooking shows, but my wife insists on turning to the antiques channel Monday nights. She’s dead set against wars, all wars, but is intrigued when a dusty old CSA rifle, found in a South Carolina attic, turns out to be worth many thousands of dollars.

But she does make the point that the antique roadshow is not just a display of items but that these old treasures tell stories; an Indian blanket identifies the tribe that made it and even tells the expert where it was made and even links it to a specific period in the Western expansion of the country.

Swords sometimes are even more informative. A week ago Monday the weapons expert showed how a succession of swords went from straight to curved. "The curved swords," he said, "show the Muslim influence, more like Turkish because the Turks fought up to the doors of Vienna before they were defeated and retreated, never to return again."

One large room in a Vienna museum has erected unexpectedly large tents with peaked roofs left behind by the retreating Turks. They were the tents of the generals and commanders.

A Litchfield neighbor, who spent many years in the Muslim Middle East and published books on Persian art, built his house as a series of buildings that replicate the Turkish tents. War tents, if you will.

But back to the swords. Some had simple handles, but those of the generals were gilded in gold with intricate engravings. "Gold was everything to those people," said the weapons historian.

As for the "warbirds," air flow dynamics are, of course, the principal determinants in designing a fighter jet plane. But the sleek lines of today’s fighter planes arguably make them things of beauty.

And while the ponderous battleships of World War I and II were not inspiring, the sleek lines of destroyers and the frisky PT boats, the type John F. Kennedy commanded, look like they came off the drawing boards of a Frank Lloyd Wright.

So you folks who find war abhorrent and uncivilized, cover your eyes when watching "Antiques Roadshow" when someone shows up with a historic old quiver of Indian arrows.

And have I forgotten all the artists whose masterpieces often were of battles and executions? Give a thought to Leonardo, whose Mona Lisa is one of history’s all-time masterpieces. Leonardo was not only an artist; he spent a large part of his creative life devising battering rams and other war machines for his patrons.

Finally, there’s Picasso’s "Guernica." That’s our lesson for today.