Salvador Teran Glass and Brass 1950s Mosaic Coffee Service

Beautiful Salvador Teran Glass Mosaic Coffee Service

Beautiful weekend this weekend as I stumbled into a fabulous world of brass from the fifties through the seventies ....there were casualties of course like the amazing mid century pair of candlesticks whose lines are seared into my retina but I emerged triumphant with monumental horses, stags, cranes, fish.... a veritable zoo of 70s brass mania but I am most thrilled with this beauty...this gorgeous glass mosaic and brass handwrought coffee service by Mexican silversmith Salvador Teran...ah sweet MCM happiness.....

Eliel, Eero, Don and the Find of the Week!

Eliel Saarinen Chest of Drawers

Fab find of the week - An Eliel Saarinen for Johnson Furniture chest of drawers - Eliel is the architect and father of the famous Eero Saarinen and for the fab fact of the week - they share the same birthday, August 20th, which also just happens to be Don King's birthday.

Find of the Week - Seriously Though

Frank Lloyd Wright for Henredon Hexagonal  coffee table
photo via COLLAGE

That's right - scored a FLW for as my father-in-law calls it  "Henry Don" -  sincerest apologies but this baby is GONE already!!!!! 

You are very ...how do you spell stupid?

Contractually, we are obligated to work retail... I love buying, obviously... but selling, face to face... not so much.  I lack patience and a healthy respect for most individuals.  I generally make my husband fulfill my hours at the antique mall so I would like to send a special thank you to him for his bi-weekly sacrifice.  I often accompany him for a few hours on those days to do a little editing and rearranging and so I was fortunate enough to share a special encounter with some of our "regular" senior customers the other day.

Their disheveled liver spot on liver spot post-coitus appearance, 10:00 am high, fresh Heinekin in hand and "can we drink in the store?" might have alerted us to the oncoming verbal onslaught, but we naively made small talk as our loyal customer placed her empty green bottle on the counter to select several items including a few pieces of costume jewelry. Upon checkout,  I watched my sweet betrothed painstakingly wrap these items and place them in a shopping bag.  I then watched the customer immediately unwrap the jewelry (I am not entirely sure why) and toss them naked back in the bag.  A few hours later, said customer returns having lost the jewelry and demands that my husband give her some free jewelry to replace the jewelry that she lost.  My dear husband, failing to see the logic in her argument and also lacking in the authority to give away other dealer's merchandise explains that he is sorry but there is really nothing he can do.  She responded that she would never be back and left,  returning seconds later to pop her head in and deliver her coup de grace, "You are very stupid."

 
Make no mistake, I have said those same words countless times and probably for lesser offenses.  That being said it these times when I love him the most.  I would have hopped the counter and slashed her tires with the abandoned Heinekin but my wonderful husband gives these "retail experiences" their appropriate universal perspective and gently asks,"Have you been talking to my wife?"

Found - Russell Kagan Raku

Found - fantastic RAKU vessel by raku master Russell Kagan - the shape is beautiful and begs to be opened which makes the metallic effect on the inside a much sweeter reward than anything that the vessel might be hiding.

Sad Cowboy Story

Today I was armed with the glamorous task of sorting, pricing and packaging a box of photos that I accumulated over the summer.  A picture of a geographically malapropos statue for a tiny Texas oil boom town in the 1920s incited a little history lesson....Apparently in 1917, 21 year old Charles H. Noyes fell from his horse trying to rope a calf and died.  His parents, completely grief stricken, commissioned the famous Pompeo Coppini to sculpt a statue in memory of their only child. When Coppini traveled to the modest Noyes ranch in 1919 to discuss the statue, he had his doubts about Noyes' ability to pay what amounts to a quarter of a million dollars today, but Noyes assured Coppini that he was prepared to pay twice that.  His bridle, boots, and saddle were sent to Chicago to help the sculptor, but since the boy had had only three pictures taken in his life, his parents had to travel to Coppini's Chicago studio when it was time to sculpt the face.  After a few adjustments to the sculpture, Mr. Noyes told Coppini "Please do not touch his face again, for that is our dear Charlie."   Mr. and Mrs Noyes sold the ranch and did not return for the unveiling, stating that they could not bear to see their son again.

Coppini's statue of Chas H. Noyes watchin over Ballinger Texas. Coppini's work can be found in Italy, Mexico but closer to home, he is known for the Cenotaph honoring the Alamo defenders, sculptures around the Texas state capitol and the Littlefield Fountain in front of the University of Texas tower.

 

Anthony Roussel

Vieux Loves... Anthony Roussel's sustainably resourced bangles and rings..

Anthony Roussel's birch wood branch bangle - photo by Rob Popper

Anthony Roussel's Small Wave Ring - photo by Juliet Sheath

Anthony Roussel's Ram Ring - photo by Juliet Sheath