I don't get it

Is the financial gain so significant it justifies the bastardisation of the esoteric?

Four from Oly:


swan oil painting



sunda ornament
cast resin ornament w/ metal base (sold individually)



saw bills
cast resin with black wood base



albert and fiona busts
resin busts with hand-appled green verdi-gris finish
albert (right), fiona (left)


Four from life:


Trumpeter Swan, plate 406 from Birds of America, 1827-1835
by John James Audubon



Early 19th Century whale's vertebra



Collection of mounted 19th Century sawfish blades



Bust of Dame Edith Sitwell
by Maurice Lambert


You decide.


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Haunt of intellect and daring

Cafe Royal London 1912 by Sir William Orpen

Café Royal was founded by French wine merchant Daniel Nicholas Thévenon. Fleeing bankruptcy in France, he arrived in England in 1863 with five pounds and his wife Célestine. A new country called for a new name, and he became Daniel Nicols. What didn’t change was his flair and Célestine’s thrift, and in just two years they were able to take over a small shop in Glasshouse Street and turn it into a café.

Good food, good service and Nicols’ knowledge of wines made the Café-Restaurant Nicols a success. Within ten years, he had created one of the most famous and cosmopolitan of establishments. Oscar Wilde made the Café his own and his followers — followed suit. And with them came the beau monde. Their sport was a battle of wits, but the real fights took place under the direction of the National Sporting Club whose boxing activities found a permanent home there in 1955.

On January 20th Bonhams will be auctioning off the contents of Café Royal. The ballrooms and suites with names such as Napoleon, Dubarry and Dauphin, are to make way for a new five-star hotel.

Just what the world needs.



Lot No: 1
Cafe Royal - The Front Hall
A pair 20th century cut glass tent and bag chandeliers.

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Modernism...

needn't always be cold or homogenised. With a little extra effort and imagination it can be warm and unique.



Scandinavian Lustre out of red copper, principal body formed by a succession of cylinders of increasing size towards the centre.


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Between une rock and un hard place

La rock, the Vallois' stand with pieces by Elieen Gray.



Pair of painted commodes by Maison Jansen.



L' hard place, an Hermes leather room by Jean Michel Frank at Galerie du Passage.


Interestingly, the unsold items in Passebon's booth say strongly what no longer matters. Still for sale on Sunday were a pair of painted chests once belonging to the decadent Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Created for the Windsor's nuptial chambers in the Chateau de la Croe, Cap d'Antibes, the chests were really ordinary painted furniture. Decorated with flowers and butterflies, the chests are a product by Stephane Boudin, head of the House of Jansen. Emblazoned on one chest's drawers were the Windsor royal feathers. How was this common 20th-century painted furniture received? "Not even for the maid's rooms," sneered one tony decorator. So provenance just doesn't cut it these days, even when its royale. What matters are objects made by great designers. - Excerpt from Decorative Arts Diary , review of the 2000 Biennale des Antiquaires, by Brook S. Mason

What in the hell ever happened to well rounded people with catholic tastes? There is a very fine line between passion and narrow mindedness.

To dismiss the commodes as what no longer matters and ordinary painted furniture is ridiculous. Simply because things are no longer fashionable does not negate their relevance or historical significance.

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This is interesting...

The Age of American Unreason is Susan Jacoby's critique of modern culture. Listen to her reading, which took place in February of 2008, at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

Could this (her premise) be a contributing factor to the indiscriminate rise in popularity of mid century modern? The reason for the proliferation and the justification of counterfeit goods? The lack of discernment? Why elitism is the new bogeyman?

Now this makes sense

Summoning Scandinavia, in this month's Architectural Digest, designed by Shelton, Mindel & Associates.

While this is not what I do, I find the clarity of vision and line, like all their work, very impressive. They are one of the few architectural firms that can, and should, decorate a house. What a difference compared to the recent Venezuelan house. To my mind's eye, at least, this house and the choices made to create it, make sense.



The wife is of Swedish descent; the family summers each year in Sweden; and the children speak Swedish. Their background suggested that the architects build on the family’s roots with a Scandinavian interpretation of Modernism, which is kinder, gentler and warmer than the more dominant Teutonic versions.









...in their individuality, the furnishings never disappear into the homogeneity that Scandinavian design suffers in the watered-down forms often seen today. “The pieces celebrate democracy but break free of any homogeneity,” says Mindel.


Text by Joseph Giovannini/Photography by Michael Moran

Who are you?

Just to be clear. This is not about bashing either the architect or the couple, or the magazine, for that matter. It is an observation of something that use to be random, but is now occurring with far greater frequency, to the point of almost being acceptable. It's not.

The spread on the Venezuelan house in April's Elle Decor illustrated everything that is wrong with contemporary interior design and possibly, today's culture.

First and foremost there was no connection between the decor and the architecture, and, I suspect, its inhabitants. Every bit of the furniture could have been purchased from any design store anywhere in the world. The interiors could have been anywhere and belonged to anyone. That is not a house, that is an hotel.



While the couple's choices appear to be informed, they do not appear to be heartfelt. How can they be? How does that house reflect the where, the who, and the why? It doesn't and it can't. The house screams for some Nakashima and some Latin American art. Instead of all that Panton, Saarinen, and Linge Roset they should have looked at contemporary and vintage Latin American designs. Then, and only then, would the Scandinavian pieces have made sense. Within the larger and more relevant context of where and who, they would have served as exclamation points rather than big question marks asking why?

Wanting and having something is not always enough. There really needs to be a deeper connection between us and our possessions, otherwise it's all just Disneyland.

Here is the link to the spread -
http://www.pointclickhome.com/elle_decor/articles/perfectly_clear

BTW : Coffee + Schnauzer + Laptop = No pictures and a new Dog Rug

To arms girls, to arms!

While perusing Life in a Venti Cup, this screamed out to me. And needless to say, it anoyed me.
Target has a decorating division, Target Commercial Interiors, that aims its services at the medium and smaller commercial client. Ann Zimmerman's article for the Wall Street Journal stated that, "The unit's more than 100 employees, many of them certified interior designers, don't shop at Target stores for their decorating supplies. But they do leverage the company's scale and sourcing ability to get good prices and find cutting-edge products -- an advantage in an industry dominated by regional and local design and architecture firms."
Mark my words, this could in fact be the beginning of the end for a great many of you (not that you are likely to see or read this). It's one thing for the design community to endorse retailers that champion affordability, it's quite a different thing when that retailer chooses to become the competition.
This is a battle worth fighting. It is time to close ranks and reclaim the mystique that decorating once held. Ruthlessly banish the mass produced and its producers from our oeuvre. This is war.


Jasper Johns Target with Four Faces, 1955

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