Clairee, you know I would rather walk on my lips than criticise anybody, but...

I just hate this.

Not because I think it an ill-executed mishmash, but because it is being proffered as an ideal for an interesting interior. To its inhabitants, it more than likely is. It is, if nothing else, highly personal. Many of the elements were chosen because they were seen to be anti-bourgeois. Unfortunately, these very elements are now part and parcel of the visual vocabulary of the nouveau bourgeois.

This is less about decorating and more about voyeurism. A voyeurism that will only spawn impersonal and derivative ill-executed mishmashes.


















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Now playing: The Human League - The Sound of the Crowd
via FoxyTunes.

Let's be frank

Three lamp designs by Jean-Michel Frank.


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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence
via FoxyTunes

The new

King Bonk chair and footstool by Fredrikson Stallard

The prototype was created not by computer graphics but by being sculpted from upholstery foam using a chainsaw. The King Bonk chair and footstool derives its name from the largest marble in the childhood game of marbles.

A limited edition produced in fiberglass and available in four custom paint colours created by Bentley - black/green, black/cobalt blue, black/gold and black/violet.


Fredrikson Stallard is available through David Gill Galleries


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Now playing: Tears for Fears - The Big Chair
via FoxyTunes

Shopping with Victoria and Albert

Bronze Pistilli Ring by Anthias




Silver Pistilli Ring by Anthias




Bronze Orbs Ring by Anthias

Anthias is the design duo of Monica Castiglioni and Natsuko Toyofuku.


The V&A Museum Shop has an outstanding selection of artisnal costume jewelry; with many of the pieces exclusive to the V&A.

Another favourite section is the space often dedicated to vintage pieces that are relevant to the current exhibitions. This time the space was given over to vintage hats to reflect the current exhibit curated by milliner Stephen Jones.


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Now playing: The Kinks - Victoria
via FoxyTunes

Gone but not forgotten

Frusen Glädjé coffee ice cream.


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Now playing: Bread - Everything I Own
via FoxyTunes

More ways to waste time

The World of Suzie Wong (1960)

Based on the 1957 novel written by Richard Mason and its subsequent stage production. Starring William Holden, Nancy Kwan, Sylvia Syms, Michael Wilding, and Jacqui Chan.

Robert Lomax (Holden) is an American architect pushing forty who moves to Hong Kong to pursue his dream of being a painter. En route he meets bargirl Suzie Wong's (Kwan) alter ego Mee Ling, her father a very rich man and she's not dirty street girl, on board the Star Ferry. It is through this chance meeting that the rest of the story unfolds.








Nancy Kwan on the cover of Life on October 24, 1960



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Now playing: Sarah Vaughan - I'm in the Mood for Love
via FoxyTunes

Looking forward to...

In House

Some of the world’s most striking and eccentric rooms, beautifully captured by Derry Moore, the 12th Earl of Drogheda and a regular contributor to Architectural Digest and Nest magazines, who for nearly thirty-five years has inimitably photographed unique, style-setting houses. Richly diverse in style and period, what these extraordinary interiors share is an eccentricity and a commitment to decorative aesthetics that has singled them out in the eyes of the world’s most discerning arbiters of taste. From an airy and colorful Moroccan palace to an austere but whimsical Scottish castle; from an Art Deco masterpiece in Jodhpur to Alphonse Mucha’s cluttered apartment in Prague; and from the museumlike home of one of London’s most macabre collectors to the extravagant remnants of Madrid’s aristocratic heritage, Moore reveals his impeccable taste and unrivaled eye for light in some of the most surprising and original rooms in the world. Each of the houses is accompanied by a commentary by noted architecture and interior design writer Mitchell Owens, and each is uniquely laid out in sympathy with its character by award-winning graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook. Together, their vision has produced a testament both to extraordinary interior design and to the unique eye of a master of interior photography.



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Now playing: Yazz - Doctorin' the House
via FoxyTunes

Just enough old lady to be interesting

Todd Romano, damn near perfect. It must be that Texas thing.
Via New York Social Diary

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Now playing: Grace Jones - I'm Not Perfect
via FoxyTunes

Pig fever

Lot No 361
Andy Warhol
1928 Pittsburgh - 1987 New York

Pig. Polaroid. 10,8 x 8,6cm. Signed bottom center: Andy Warhol. Framed. - Verso mounted in the top sheet edge. Otherwise in perfect condition.

From Van Ham





Lot No 10
Anna Pottery Pig Flask with Rare Map and Form
American, ca 1870-1875, by Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick, Anna Pottery, Illinois. Anna Pottery pig flask of Arkansas stagecoach and river route. Salt glazed molded stoneware with cobalt filled inscriptions include St. Louis near snout, also Poplar Bluff, Fort Smith, Memphis, New Orleans, Little Rock, Benton, Malvern with Texarkana on the rear and Hot Springs on the belly. Inscriptions of rivers include Ark River (Arkansas), Miss River (Mississippi) and Ohio Ri.. Anatomically correct and of rare small size with atypical location of hole at the top center of pig's back; 2.25" high x 4.5" long.

Condition: Undissolved salt spots. Old chip on back leg.


From Cowan's



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Now playing: Little Nell - Fever
via FoxyTunes

Magnificent

Lot 388

The Pelham Water Buffalo

An Exceptional Chinese Imperial Spinach-Green Jade Water Buffalo with a Fine Gilt Bronze Stand.
Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period 1736-95, 20.8cm long.

Description

The recumbent beast with a serene mildly inquisitive expression, carved from a massive spinach-green boulder; is depicted with his head turned and raised to the right, his facial features with flaring nostrils and alert eyes, framed by horns curling back to his spine, the trumpet-shaped ears and horns finely incised with lines depicting the fur, his dewlap beneath the neck naturalistically carved flowing down to the base, the form of the body accentuated by the superbly defined spine extending to the tail that curls above his hind leg, all four hooves boldly carved on the underside. The gilt bronze base incised with flowers and foliage to the surface above a key fret band bearing a four character Qianlong mark. A narrow band of scrolling flowers and foliage dividing elaborated stylized lappets and with a second key fret band at the foot.

For the full provenance visit the Woolley & Wallis catalogue.


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Now playing: The Clash - The Magnificent Dance
via FoxyTunes

Maker's mark

Japanese woodblock print artist Mori Yoshitoshi (1898-1993). A sosaku hanga artist who designed, carved, and printed his own work without a publisher.

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Now playing: k.d. lang - Shadow and the Frame
via FoxyTunes

It is just like in the movies

The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. "This bird", boasted the market vendor, "was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose. And now look, it is too beautiful to eat!" Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of lei wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey, she cooed to the swan, "In America, I will have a daughter just like me. But over there, nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husbands belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there, she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow. She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan, a creature that became more than what was hoped for." But when she arrived in the new country the immigration officials pulled the swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. For a long time now, the woman had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her; "This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions."

The character of June Woo's opening narration of The Joy Luck Club


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Now playing: Billie Holiday - God Bless the Child
via FoxyTunes

World view

World map from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius.




Typus Orbis Terrarum, twelve 19th century hand painted large ceramic glazed tiles after Abraham Ortelius. Each tile measures 25cm X 25cm.


Abraham Ortelius (1527 – 1598), the Flemish cartographer and geographer, is generally recognised as the creator of the first modern atlas.


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Now playing: Jimmy Somerville - You Are My World
via FoxyTunes

Preaching to the choir

In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness. - Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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Now playing: Jason Mraz - The Beauty In Ugly
via FoxyTunes

Rogues gallery

Lot No 85
Set of eight portraits of Oliver Cromwell, his sons, his generals and associates.
Irish/English School (Late 18th/Early 19th Century)


Whyte's Auctioneers

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Now playing: Lynyrd Skynyrd - Cry for the Bad Man
via FoxyTunes

Surround

Early 20th Century fireplace tiles.


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Now playing: k.d. lang - I Want It All
via FoxyTunes

With summer on its way

It's not too early to start planning for cold dishes. If I may suggest one of our favourites Vitello Tonnato, chilled veal with a tuna sauce. It is one of the Italian summer classics.

Delia Smith has a new recipe for it on line.


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Now playing: Simple Minds - Someone Somewhere In Summertime
via FoxyTunes.

In the pink

Dianthus


Carnations and Pinks: The Complete Guide by Sophie Hughes

Kingstone Cottage Plants



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Now playing: The Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink
via FoxyTunes

No particular reason

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Now playing: Vangelis - I'll Find My Way Home
via FoxyTunes

Righty?

Design Solutions
House & Garden, July 2000 (UK)


Wrongy.
Shut up Bowers.



Pretty? Yes.
Great decorating? No.




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Now playing: Sparklehorse - Getting It Wrong
via FoxyTunes

Meanwhile, back in Paris

A conscious, and unfortunately laboured, attempt to incorporate disparate elements for a fantasy in Paris's 9th arrondissement . La fantaisie l'Empier, l'esprit retour d'Afrique et les pastiches neo-classiques. Photographed by Joel Laiter, for Elle Decoration, January/February 2002 (France).



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Now playing: Amanda Lear - Fantasy
via FoxyTunes

Bit on the side

A Japanese lacquer table with gilt designs over the black ground. Asymmetrical compartments below, two with double doors and decoration to the interior.

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Now playing: Hans Zimmer - The Last Samurai: Idyll's End
via FoxyTunes

Shopping with MoMA

Stacking Heller Dinnerware
Massimo Vignelli, 1964





Colorful Wobble Glasses
Monica Lubkowska Jonas, 2007





Mirror Coasters
Barbara Flanagan, 2007





Zucch Sugar Pourer
Lisa Vincitorio, 2008





Folding Bird House
Jesper Moller Hansen,
Dorthe Weis, 2007





Wooden Clutch
Tia Cibani, 2007



A museum is only as good as its gift shop.

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Now playing: Paul Weller - The Strange Museum
via FoxyTunes

More ways to waste time

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) - Original Trailer





Based on the novel by Tennessee Williams, starring Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Coral Browne, Lotte Lenya, and Jill St. John.

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) tells the tale of a fading American actress (played by a Pierre Balmain clad Vivien Leigh) who, en route to Rome, unexpectedly becomes a very rich American widow. Adrift and afraid, she decides to stay in the Eternal City. Where, against her better judgement, she takes a lover (Beatty). A lover who is bought and paid for.





Images from DVDBeaver

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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Master And Servant
via FoxyTunes

Pronounced ah-stewg-v'YAY

Miru mirror mounted with a cobalt blue braided cotton frame
Astuguevieille for CoutureLab





Commode Aton





Commode Nr. 4


Christian Astuguevieille : For Furniture, A French Twist - by Suzanne Slesin

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Now playing: Deborah Harry - French Kissin' In The USA
via FoxyTunes