Mirror Mirror...

As the adage goes "one must be in the right place at the right time." No truer words were spoken and I have encountered endless "pickers" who have made a livelihood through a combination of luck and guile. A "picker" is an intermediary dealer that combs the countryside to snap-up under-catalogued items as they pass anonymously through hasty volume sales of every sort. The "picker" usually unites the obscure item with its authorship and/or provenance and passes it on for a tidy profit. Much to my chagrin I must introduce Exhibit A:

This deliciously architectural Art Deco screen was offered amidst hundreds of other lots in Christie's New York January Interiors sale. I only discovered its existence a few weeks ago while perusing the back catalogue bins at the Strand and my heart sank (as is usually the case in these instances). The lot was simply described as an "Art Deco Aluminum and Colored Glass Four-Panel Screen" and sold for a mere $1250. I knew from the tattered catalogue exactly what I was seeing... I introduce Exhibit B:

This virtually identical screen was created ca. 1930 for the first Mrs. Vincent Astor (Helen Dinsmore Huntington) by her brother-in-law the South African artist Jan Juta. Jan Juta is best known as a muralist and illustrator who was a close friend and collaborator of D. H. Lawrence. A portrait of Lawrence by Juta hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Juta was the fortunate heir of a publishing dynasty which allowed him to develop his art and travel the globe in the process, spending most of the early 1920s on the Riviera. It was in Eze that he painted extensive murals for the chateau of American composer Samuel L. Barlow. This was quite fortuitous as Barlow's wife was a society decorator under the professional name of Ernesta Beaux. She hired him to craft the extensive glass murals present in the lobby she created for the fabled River House in New York City. (If you have not read Michael Henry Adams series on the River House over at the Huffington Post do so at once...it is a must.)

The River House Lobby, showing a detail of the Juta mirrored glass murals depicting exotic Mexican vistas

It is likely that Mrs. Barlow assisted Juta with his entree to New York society, regardless, in short order he opened a New York studio and began a prolific career as a muralist/designer and regularly exhibited his decorative works.

This circa 1929 image of the artist in his studio shows him at work on a series of japonisme panels destined for the townhouse of Schuyler Parsons at 49 East 72nd Street (demolished 1959).

Detail of the Schuyler Parson's residence with the Juta panels in-situ

Juta contributed to the decoration of the RMS Queen Elizabeth and to the United Nations headquarters, remaining in the United States until his death in 1990. Whoever was fortunate enough to purchase the Jan Juta screen at a fraction of its $2000-3000 estimate is quite lucky in my book. Provided further context and provenance research it can be passed on for five to ten times the auction price... Oh well, you can't win them all. On to the hunt!

Errant Artemis Re-emerges at the Met...

Sorry to be such an absentee blogger but duty called and I was off advising for the past few weeks. During my research I had the chance to once again call on the Watson Library within the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their holdings are amazing but to call their process "old school" is being kind. Don't believe me....check out their guidelines. Anyway, after I had viewed what I needed I decided to take a turn though the Greek and Roman galleries. Since their much touted reinstallation I thought I had investigated every treasure...apparently not. Behold, right in the vestibule of the Roman Court I came face-to-face with a rather scandalous "old friend".

This Imperial Roman glamour girl was the center of a hot debate when she was auctioned off at Sotheby's in 2007. You see, she was part of a large group of traditional antiquities and fine arts that were deaccessioned from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York in order to raise funds to acquire modern and contemporary art instead. Museum circles and donors were outraged to think that long held artworks could be sold-off from institutions at the whim of a curator or board. It was a PR nightmare for Albright-Knox but the rare works attracted frenzied bidding and wild results. This unusual and large bronze of Artemis with a stag fetched $28.6 million against a seemingly modest estimate of $5-7 million. She holds the current highest price paid for an antiquity or any other sculpture for that matter. Of course the Met's cataloging mentions nothing of the scandal and discreetly notes that she is on loan from a private collection. Your casual gallery goer would breeze by and never understand her full history and rarity from the scant information provided. For now she is on loan and still in the public eye. Check her out while you can...

Liberty of London for Target Liberates Cash from Wallets

I have to say that like most anglophiles I was delighted to hear that Liberty of London was partnering with Target on an extensive line of clothing and lifestyle accessories. Well, the sellout and early closing of the NYC pop-up store last week was an early indication of how well the line would go over. For those not familiar, Liberty of London was founded in 1875 and offered exotic housewares and fashions that became essentials for the Aesthetic Movement crowd. Liberty's bold floral fabrics are iconic in the design world and have logically formed the centerpiece of the Target collection. I awoke on Sunday only to find that most of the collection had already sold out online. Not to be discouraged I rented a car and hit the burbs...I was not the only one to do so. It was a madhouse but after hitting two stores I felt sated in the knowledge that I had seen the collection and bought a few of the "must have" items.

The hoard above is comprised mostly of their stationary, giftware and clothing. I have to say that at these price points the quality is pretty fair. They did get it wrong with most of the bedding because the patterns are blown-up to near distortion and the thread counts are low enough to be rash inducing. That said their Lucite boxes, frames and stationary are very well done and would be a bargain at twice the price. I of course I had to compare some of the clothing with Liberty pieces I already possess...

Placed side by side these ties feel fairly similar in weight and texture. The print on the Target tie is a bit simplified and the finish lacks the sheen of its better cousin but overall I was pleasantly surprised. By the time I left both stores most of the shelves were picked clean and by mid-afternoon "Liberty for Target" items started popping up allover eBay at double and triple the retail price. That's life in the world of design...

Mikiphone: Form Follows Function Without Apology

The other day I found myself comforting a good friend as his hard drive lay dying in that venerable computer hospital, Tekserve. I was a bit out of my element as I admittedly embrace the future while gazing fondly at the past. Scanning the room I felt drawn to the display of portable speaker systems available every configuration and hue. With the advent of mp3 technology entire "record" collections can now be carried in your pocket and the portable speaker systems allow music to be even more accessible to the masses. It seems that once a technology is perfected the struggle then becomes making it "smaller, better and faster." This of course has always been the case...

I present to you the Mikiphone, a Swiss product patented in 1924 as the "pocket phonograph." All of the components condense neatly into the round stainless steel case about the size of a large pocket watch (4 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.). It was the ipod of its day and was even lauded by modernist architect Le Corbusier for capturing the "essence of the esprit nouveau." His reaction is likely due to the fact that the Mikiphone was a modern refinement of the phonograph to its essential form with the utmost efficiency and honesty and not shrouded in the fripperies of a historicist cabinet. To see a Mikiphone in action click here.

You see, when phonographs were introduced in the late 19th century they resembled scientific instruments which were often an affront to the senses when placed within the domestic interior. Elsie De Wolfe herself had this to say on the matter in her decorating treatise The House in Good Taste (1913) "I prefer the good mechanical cabinet that offers us 'canned' music to the manual exercise of people who insist on playing wherever they see an open piano. Of course the mechanical instrument is new, and therefore, subject to much criticism from a decorative standpoint... I have a cabinet of 'canned' music that can be turned on for small dances when need be, and that can be hidden in a closet between times. Why not?" Well this prevailing attitude led phonograph manufacturers to form art departments whose sole task was to cloak phonographs in every period style known to man. The results are sometimes comical as seen in in the period literature and examples below.


This sort of blind historicism for sake of decoration would surely have given Ruskin a fit but it makes me laugh on some level. As if Abelard and Heloise fired up their 'Gothic' phonograph in the midst of a romantic moment, funny, but preposterous nonetheless. I'd take the Mikiphone over a faux Louis XV chinoiserie model any day...good design never needs to apologize for itself.

Proto-Modern Marvel

While distracting myself from the tasks at hand, I decided to review Wright's March Design Sale. Considering the economy, it is a fairly solid showing of 20th century design staples but nothing really sets the the world on fire in my opinion. It is of course a "mid-season sale", and like Christie's and Sotheby's, this sort of sale tends to be less earth-shattering and more about clearing previously unsold property and lower-profile consignments. That said it is a great way to get deals on standards while you wait for the more "important" (ahem) sales. I was however delighted to see this lovely little toast/letter rack by Christopher Dresser.

This piece is inserted right in the middle of the art deco section of the sale despite the fact that this design surprisingly dates to 1878. Dresser was a well versed exponent of the revival styles of the Victorian age but was capable of being forward-looking to which his metalwork designs can attest.

While the forms flirt with Japonisme, they are distinctly anthropomorphic and futuristic owing to the fact that he embraced industrialization. The tureen and claret jug have always seemed to be capable of lift-off while the footed vessels appear to be waiting for the lights to dim so they can make a quick escape. It is hard to believe we are looking at designs from the 1870s-80s. These works were conceived nearly a half a century before their time. The toast rack at Wright's is priced at $1000-1500 which seems a bit high as it is a silver-plated brass example. Electroplated examples tend to sell in the $600-800 range while the solid silver examples tend to go in the mid to high 1000s as seen in a recent example sold at Christie's South Kensington. We will have to wait and see how this beauty performs...

UPDATE: Well the auction came and went and I feel vindicated in my assessment. The lot reached around $700 ($938 with buyer's premeium) which is where a plated example should fall...

Some things don't change, thankfully

To beat the winter blues as we stand on the precipice of yet another snowstorm I spent some time perusing images of my last trip to Paris. Among the mood elevating gems was this image of an upholsterer's shop in the fabric district of Montmartre.

The dangling restauration style armchairs seemed odd to my shopping companions but they immediately shot my mind back to images from Denis Diderot's famous Encyclopedie. Diderot, for those not in the know, was a great Enlightenment thinker who produced an encyclopedia documenting the arts, sciences and trades of 18th century France. It is a visual feast and I highly recommend it.

This is Diderot's view of a typical upholstery workshop where one could select from numerous styles of finished and unfinished works. Note the suspended chair frames...

It may seem odd to our 20th century eyes, but thankfully this is far from mass production and dare I say it...Ikea.

Pebble + Window = Broken? Not always so...

On a recent escape from the gray winter doldrums I found myself in Winter Park, Florida. Being in the "art biz" I had been told for ages to take in the extensive Tiffany Glass collection at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum and I am very glad that I finally made the trek. Around every corner were "old friends", Tiffany works that I had seen published many times over the years not always noting where they were located. To call the collection encyclopedic barely does it justice. One of the many works that stopped me in my tracks was an extremely rare "pebble" window executed by Tiffany studios in the 1890s.

The window itself was executed for the house of Joseph Briggs in Jersey City, New Jersey. Briggs was one of Louis C. Tiffany's most trusted workman and is the person who is often credited with these obscure glass and pebble confections. The crystalline pebbles of the border and the central clusters are arranged and graded in such a way as to make the semi-precious stones transcend into almost jewel-like qualities. In the past these rare pebble works were considered more of a curiosity, an eccentric offshoot of Tiffany's core business. However, very recently serious Tiffany collectors have snapped-up a related window and an orientalist dream of a table lamp both of which were sold through Sotheby's.

This detail from the Briggs window shows the subtle grading and tonality of the stone selection. This was no small feat and was achieved through the craftsman's adept skill and slight-of-hand as the tiniest "pebbles" forming the center are actually rendered in faceted-glass effortlessly blended into a cohesive composition. This blend of faceted-glass and pebble work is seen most closely in the Sotheby's lamp noted above. While the result does not suit all tastes the survival of these decorative oddities stand as a testament to Tiffany's genius.