Yellow and black, preferably in a black room with yellow curtains.
1950s Italian Up lighter with original painted shade. 
1950s French mirror in the venetian style.
1950s two seat sofa with ebonised frame, original leather straps and re-upholstered buttoned cushion seat and back.
1970s pair of ceramic lamp bases in a black glazed ceramic with monkey detail.
One of my favourite sources is dealer Philip Thomas. As he is now with 1stDibs he is no longer a well kept secret.
Philip Thomas
4A Ladbroke Grove
London
W11
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Now playing: James Galway - The Flight of the Bumblebee
via FoxyTunes
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
I'm thinking...
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6 comments:
How very amusing ... the room in my head was precisely the same.
One of the most beautiful rooms I ever saw was the recreation of a tiny room designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh that was installed at the Art Institute of Chicago back in the 199Os. The show had recreations of two of his ethereally white tearooms, but the room that knocked me for a loop was the antithesis of the look one normally associates with Mackintosh.
It was a narrow, windowless interior hallway in a 19th Century row house, and it was entirely black: walls, floor, woodwork, the whole shebang. Rather than try--and fail--to brighten the place up with early electricity, Mackintosh instead chose to emphasize the elegance of darkness, and the only illumination in the room came from a small backlit panel of opalescent yellow glass that was set low in the wooden wall beneath the stringer of the stair to the floor above. Basically, it was a nightlight. But what a beautiful nightlight it was.
It's been 15 years since I was in that tiny, mysterious space & by now I've forgotten most of the details except for the way the glare of that yellow light struck the narrow gilt picture frames on a wall nearby. What I'll never forget is Mackintosh's lesson on the economics of elegance, and how he achieved the richest of effects with the paltriest of means. It's a lesson that may come to be more useful than we know.
it's not yellow and black, but in his first book, Michael Smith showed a living room with the most delicious silk drapes of peking yellow. They were such a standout, so unexpected and bold - glorious! I'm going to go look at your dealer on 1st dibs! ta-ta
The monkey detail on the black glazed lamps is gorgeous.
Regarding magnaverde's comments, I'm sure as an afficionado of CRM he will be well aware that he was of course very influenced by Japanese style, which is understatement taken to the nth degree.
That mirror. That glorious mirror.
Love the yellow and black. It is one of my favourite colour combinations. BTW love your blog header!!
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