Business Time

That time in the semester has begun. The time when I have no life, don't see daylight very often (no windows in the library) and am doing actual work. Which means I don't have much that's exciting to post here. I've got a couple things I want to write about but I have to get the images first, so that's holding me up.

Thesis is going well. It has become less about textiles and more about design history. I'm hoping the organization I'm writing about will help fill some of the gaps in the timeline and themes of the traditional story of polemic modernism. I think my window into the commercial side of design is something less discussed in the literature.

My boxes are going well too. We have been doing some investigation with blacklight, infrared photography, and microscopes to learn more about the fabrication and details of the boxes. I am going to work on genealogy of the names from the inscriptions, now that we have great IR images of them. Also, four more boxes are coming up for sale, two of which I will see on Monday.

And next week is the Delaware Antiques Show. I'm so excited to be there for setup, the preview party, and all the festivities. Hoping to get my network on.

Chandelier Stamp

Last semester I wrote about a weird cut glass object that looked a little like a girandole but was made for serving desserts - so I ended up reading a lot about how girandoles and chandeliers were made. Now I am obsessed with cut glass, related lighting objects, and chandeliers. I was even going to be a chandelier for Halloween this year, but the costume wouldn't have lasted the night, so I gave up.

I was browsing etsy for things with chandeliers and found some gift tags made using a rubber stamp of a chandelier. A little googling brought me to the stamp itself, sold by a company called Impress. I want this, but I know that the people in my life will get sick of cards and gifts covered with chandeliers a lot faster than I will... so maybe it's not a good idea.

December Interior Update

So, my parents are out to thwart me! Just kidding, but they were looking at the December print I posted, and noticed a window shade in the right window. Spring roller shades, according to my father, were not patented until 1864. So, does this mean this print is later than that, and that the artist accidentally used a modern type of furnishing in an interior meant to portray the early 19th century? I don't know. I do think that some type of shades were being used before 1864, but they would not have had springs or been self-rolling. I found a few images of interiors with shades from the 1820-1850s.

The style and paper say ca. 1830 to me. I will say, however, that in my first post about this print, I only made a guess at the date of the interior, not the print itself. The print does not depict a scene contemporary to its making.

William Morris Tools

It's probably pretty common knowledge that the gift shop at the Victoria & Albert Museum is awesome. The fact that they have a pretty good online shop makes it even better, and to top it off, they are selling William Morris printed tools! My roommate recently told me about a study in which they concluded that women were more likely to buy something (like tools) if they were pink. Well, how about textile-printed tools! These are so awesome, I can't even express it. I also feel like Morris is appropriate for tools: the individual can produce their handcrafted creations (and look good doing it).

December Interior

Here we are on another stop of the senile scenic tour* of my meager art collection. Another find in my favorite rare book store, I found this lone etching (come on, print connoisseurship block!) of December without any of its companion months. Because any possible identifying information has been cut off, I don't know much about it, or the where it comes from. Under usual circumstances I might try to find this out (maybe I'll write about one such project next), but I am too busy with school right now!

What we have going on here is probably a late 18th century (or even early 19th c., since the dude might be old and outdated, as he is in the "December" of his life...) interior, that might be British. The textiles are great here, because those are objects that tend not to survive as well in real life: the bed hangings, carpet, window hangings, and slip covers on various pieces of furniture. The hand coloring is nice too, though I never know how to tell when that would have been added. I have to figure out how to study interiors of all kinds. Can someone tell me where that job is?

*Thank you, Lorraine Buchbinder, for this phrase.

Claire Coles Wallpaper

My mother, an awesome librarian at the Cleveland Museum of Art, often sends me books, articles from magazines and newspapers, and other tidbits that relate to what I study. She used to work in the library where I pretty much live now, and she is one of the few people who fully understand what I do and why. Anyway, a few days ago she sent me some material from the museum of wallpaper in Alsace, as well as a little clipping about Claire Coles. Coles is an artist and designer who makes a variety of objects including ceramics and wearable art, but the article was about her wallpaper creations. She uses old "forgotten" papers she collects, and stitches them together, sometimes adding leather and other materials. My favorite design from her website is this one with lamp shades, because, of course, I love the decorative art within the decorative art.

Snippet: Svenskt Tenn

Today historian Robert Crocker told me about the Swedish "lifestyle company" Svenskt Tenn. They were founded in 1924, in part by designer Josef Frank (who designed the textile above). Just go check out their website: it rocks, and the furniture and textiles are pretty cool too.

Spatterware!

Ah, spatterware. I borrowed this snippet of Spatterware Hall at Winterthur from an article in Traditional Home magazine. According to our curator there are over 1300 pieces of this stuff in this room, which is probably why it's not appreciated by students in my program. We've got so much of it, I always wondered why it was desirable. After seeing this stuff bring pretty high prices at the auction last week, I asked my boss (a super-knowledgeable antiques dealer) about it. He told me that, in the scheme of things, there really isn't that much of this out there. I guess we have most of it (the "mother lode" according to TH magazine). I'll let you go read about it on your own: this is not a history of spatterware. I will also refrain from discussing my personal feelings about these ceramics. People I've encountered tend to have pretty visceral reactions to it, good and bad.

On a related topic, I actually like Traditional Home, though the name turned me off at first. Sure, I can't afford anything in it, but it's not about that for me. I'm not shopping. I like their antiques and collecting section, which is often written or produced by the Kenos. And, I appreciate that you can read a lot of their articles online for free.

NYT Guide to "The Age of Rembrandt"

This guide to "The Age of Rembrandt" exhibition at the Met was published in the NYT online on September 20th, but I'm just now playing around with it. While I was doing research at the Met a couple weeks ago I did the fast-forward version of the show. I chose a few paintings and spent about an hour there, and it is AWESOME. Alright, so I'm easy to please in this department, but there were some paintings I had never seen before, some of which are highlighted in the NYT guide. This online guide shows you the floor plan and organization of the show, and gives detailed information for 13 of the 228(!) paintings on display. For the site, art critic Holland Cotter narrates the highlights, providing a mini art history lesson with each one. So, head over to the online arts section and get yourself a little schoolin'.

Paul Frankl and Walter Kantack: Rebels

Okay, so they weren't really rebels, but they did make "original" designs for the Art-In-Trades Club exhibition of 1926. There were a few others who submitted similar designs, but for the most part the catalogue presents period style. Right now I have the club's exhibition catalogues from 1924 and 1926 (and plan on seeing the others in NYC soon). Both of the books I have now show a few designs inspired by the Paris Expo among the many revival interiors and objects. Yesterday I spoke with historian Cheryl Robertson, who actually used to teach in my program, about the club and design during their time period. One thing she told me to figure out is if their statement of purpose (or activities) really changed during the war (WWI). Post-war design (and society for that matter) seemed to be more accepting of all things corporate, unlike the individual craftsman champions of the arts and crafts movement. It's actually a little difficult to tell if the club favored the manufacturer or the individual designer (as pictured in this page from their catalogue), because they sort of do both. They definitely state in their introduction to the show that they accept the commercial, though they would like to wed art and the trade. Seeing all of the catalogues and getting a handle on the information I do have will help me figure out what's going on here. What is their mission statement? What are they doing? What do they produce? What are they doing for society (or at least the design field)? Do the products of club members align with their written goals? Where do they fit in design history? Could this club be an alternative to the current scholarly narrative of Modernism? Are they part of it - another side of the story? And that is pretty much my thesis in a very very tiny nutshell.

This is not about design: Google Analytics

My friend Brian told me about Google Analytics a few days ago, and it is SO cool. It tells me how many people are viewing my blog, exactly what city they are viewing from, and all these other stats. Did you click on any type of link to get here? G. A. will tell me that link, how many times you clicked on it, and how long you spent looking at my blog. Don't let that stop you though! A few people were sent here via Joanna's awesome blog, some through facebook, some through direct links I sent them, but most just through the blogger site. I haven't gotten any comments, really, so it's nice to see readers documented. So far my most distant readers have been from Oregon and Canada.

Thanks for visiting!