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.....

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!!!!! 

Frankenshimas

Once upon a time there was a young couple with a fondness for hand-crafted organic modern furniture. Though their tastes varied, his a bit more masculine and hers a bit more feminine, together, they enjoyed the discovery and adventure in the hunt.  They could not believe their eyes one day while perusing online when they spotted two chairs with the stink of Nakashima on them in a place called Cedar Hill.  In case you have never been to Cedar Hill, it has no reputation for being a hotbed of iconic furniture.  These looked exactly like the famous three legged Mira chairs (the chair Nakashima named after his daughter) ... at least the top of the chair looked like a Mira chair.  The bottom, however, had one extra leg. 

Their first reaction naturally was "I guess not" but you could feel the internment camp in this photo of the chairs.  They sat down together at the computer with squinted eyes - shaking their heads, perplexed at the extra leg in the front.  They laughed and made jokes at the expense of a hillbilly they had never met "fixin' these funny lookin' chairs with Granny's broomstick and Pa's cane." They imagined maybe times were hard and these people needed "some kindlin' for the fireplace." Their laughter faded as the husband decided to make the rush hour hall down to Cedar Hill to meet the heir of these fine chairs.  Tears fill his eyes as he flips the chairs over to find the slaughtered remnants of the third leg, stumps crying out that "Yes!," they were once legs crafted by a master.  He slumps over as he sees the remnant of the tag with that four syllable name that conjures up images of something exquisitely beautiful.  It takes all of his strength not to curse this woman's grandfather.  He calls his wife, who is also heartbroken, but clearheaded enough to advise him not to swear at the innocents but to purchase the chairs anyway as they may be able to have them repaired.
 
He heads back North crestfallen, pulls in the driveway, carries the chairs inside and sets them down less gently than he may have if they were in their original state. He and his wife sit down, squinting their eyes again like they are looking at their own ugly newborn baby and they imagine ..... to be a fly on the wall that day when the Frankenshimas got their extra legs.

Our little Frankenshimas

Hurts...Doesn't it?

The amputee

Painful yet?

Japanese Weekend

We had a very big weekend - we found a fab Danish couch with pristine upholstery and the "butterload" (my six year old's word for motherload) of Asian smalls, we scored a cerused black mid-century bedroom set, a very large red buddha, a round yellow Asian / midcentury table, at least a hundred pieces of 50s and 60s clothing and lots lots more but my favorite far and away are five antique stained glass panels....check out these three

Do you carry any mid century modern?

Danish rocker by Frank Reenskaug

I found this lovely teak 1958 Frank Reenskaug for Bramin relegated to the back of an awful little shop exactly 3 minutes after asking the proprietor, Madame Pincenez, if they had any mid century modern, to which she abhorrently replied, "Absolutely not, we don't carry any of THAT." 

Four Score

Yabu and Pushelberg's Carlisle Chair

This week my sweet husband scored four burnt orange Nienkamper swivel Carlisle chairs designed in 1992 by George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg whose work includes includes the lavish interior of  Las Alcobas Hotel in Mexico City, the Four Seasons in Tokyo and several Manhattan hotspots including the glitzy renovation for Tiffany & Co., Blue Fin restaurant, as well as the interior for the Carolina Herrera boutique just to name a few.  Two are at Lula B's now and two are waiting for a couch to move.

The Graveyard

Gilt sheath of wheat chandelier coming to Lula Bs...Some Day

You know that feeling you get when you're having a party and the house is perfect because of your natural style, thoughtful purchasing and decorating genius.  The tulips are smiling and everything is in multi level vignettes of three flanked by pairs. You are about to get ready, and you are in no rush, because, damn girl, you had your s*** together this time. You step back into a corner, take a quick survey and bam, the room looks exactly like you wanted.

 
I know this feeling, I get it every now and then. This elation does not take place at my own home, which is like a purgatory for lost vintage, -  a veritable graveyard for harpless lamps with hanging sockets doing penance alongside chandeliers awaiting crystals and solder. My husband, Nick, is St. Peter standing at the pearly gates of the suburban.  If you make it to the pearly gates, you have been begun your baptismal journey to retail heaven.  My aha moments are relegated to my Lula Bs space, when my re-purposed, refinished and recycled pieces somehow join in a sopranic Ave Maria and I can take a few steps back, trip over someone else's space and say "Yes, that is just how it should be." Then while I am picking up the neighbor's smalls that I knocked over, I glimpse over just in time to watch someone purchase the organic, yet glam, yet whimsical sculpture that tied the space together and I start all over.

Alvar Aalto Alternative

French Art Deco Table available at Jean Marc Fray Antiques on 1st Dibs

The Wolf's Table

Alvar Aalto's Classic Design

There is joy in the hunt, setting out to find the unknown.  It is like a first date when you already know you are going to fall in love with the chap.  I go out and I find things, wonderful, beautiful, unexpected things.  That being said, if I am looking for something in particular, I rarely find it.  I have been looking for the "perfect" kid's table for my one year old for six months.  I had grown weary of watching my one year old perpetrate a smorgasbord of sins on the meals I placed before him. After wiping up the spills from juice glasses filled with noodles, I would climb underneath the table to wipe off the butter soaked toe print abstracts.  Having watched him climb atop the glass table on numerous occasions obviously trying to commit baby suicide, I came to the conclusion it was time to ground the little fellow.  

I kept my eyes open as I scoured estate sales, thrift stores, tag sales and craigslist positive that the perfect table would present itself. It did not. Chairs sure...tables, no way.  I considered breaking into surrounding churches and schools from the fifties. I was feeling tiny vintage challenged and none too excited about going to jail when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a ridiculously fantastic art deco side table hiding right in front of my face. The perfect height, size and shape with a bonus tier for things like paper and crayons. By hiding I mean that in my very focused little brain, the table that had been sitting in my home for months was a project.  I had great plans for it.  I was going to ebonize the top and bottom and keep the fantastic patina on the legs. It was patiently awaiting its next life in limbo with its fellow refinishing projects.  I promised the table that one day it would fulfill its destiny in a magazine photographed by a skilled photographer in perfect light in someone else's home.  I apologized profusely for what abuse it would incur over the next two years and then with enormous relief I sat my sweet Wolfie down with his bowl of noodles ... and watched him climb on top and fall off, noodles in toe.

Today's Finds

Goddess, Pair of Swans, Pair of Asian etchings. Pair of stone candle holders

Mid Century Silver Plate Taper Holder, Mid Century Serving Spoons, Asian Bowl

Amber Murano glass bowl and kitschy Egyptian leather pouf