Walter and Greta von Nessen

Walter von Nessen (1889-1943) was a German-born industrial designer. Prior to World War I, he was a student of Bruno Paul at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin and a teacher at the Charlottenburg Art School. After the war, he was employed by architect Peter Behrens. From 1919 to 1923, he designed furniture in Stockholm.

Greta von Nessen (1900-1975) was the daughter of an architect. Born in Sweden in 1900, she graduated from the School for Industrial Arts in Stockholm and married Walter von Nessen.

In 1923 the couple immigrated to the United States and in 1926 founded Nessen Studios in New York, where they almost exclusively designed and fabricated architectural lighting.

The couple attracted the attention of top architects with their sleek lamp designs and soon rose to prominence in the New York design world, becoming part of the vanguard of modern industrial designers, along with such notables as Raymond Loewy, Donald Deskey, Eliot Noyes, Russel Wright and Gilbert Rohde.

Walter von Nessen's career culminated with the introduction of a series of swing arm lamps, while Greta von Nessen's most famous design is the Anywhere Lamp, which was introduced in 1951. It has been featured on a U.S. postage stamp and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art.

After her husband's death in 1943, Greta von Nessen continued to design lamps out of their studio, now known as  Nessen Lighting.

From cooperhewitt.org and nessenlighting.com

Table lamp - Walter von Nessen
artic.org

Floor lamp - Walter von Nessen
modernismgallery.com

Tripod lamps - Walter von Nessen
modernism.com

Swing arm lamp - Walter von Nessen
1stdibs.com

Anywhere Lamp - Greta von Nessen
1stdibs.com

Double cone lamp - Greta von Nessen
1stdibs.com

You might have noticed our Greta von Nessen double cone lamp in a recent post.

Greta von Nessen lamp in our entryway

Spaces: Daughter's bedroom

We're still in the process of choosing and framing photos my daughter has taken on recent shoots, so the walls are bare, but I love this finished corner of the space. The Royal Haeger gourd vases by Larry Laslo and a vase she picked up on a trip to Costa Rica look great with her vintage Tony Paul-style wire lamp on a mid-century style dresser from West Elm. The rug, which Crate and Barrel interestingly describes as an "impressionistic oriental," is the Alvarez in Mineral. Sometimes a piece as practical as a well-made laundry hamper can round out a look. This one is the Sedona, also from Crate and Barrel, in Honey.

Vintage lamp and gourd vases paired with a Costa Rican vase
atop a mid-century style West Elm chest of drawers,
 along with a Crate and Barrel rug and laundry hamper

The art leaning unceremoniously in the corner is a favorite of mine. When my daughter was in her twenties and majoring in photography, one of her fellow students chose her as the subject of the series of multiple exposure pieces he exhibited for his BFA senior show. She loves the piece too, but she thinks it's a little weird to have a big picture of yourself on the wall, so it always goes in unobtrusive places.

Close-up of art*

*Excuse the reflection of my phone. I figured leaving it alone would be better than a bad edit.

Details

Charles Eames once said, "The details are not the details. They make the design." Accordingly, we have changed quite a few things about the front of our house.

First, a cage of burglar bars originally covered a large portion of the front porch. Not only was it unsightly, it screamed paranoia and had to go. In fact, the inspection report listed it as a hazard, so we stipulated that it be removed before we took possession of the house.

Burglar bars...gone before we got here

Also, our mailbox originally was positioned in the flowerbed beside the driveway and looked like this:

Old mailbox

Besides needing a paint job, it was inconveniently located, so we offered it free on Craigslist. Someone came out almost immediately and removed it, which involved a good bit of digging and ultimately pulling out of the ground with a large pickup truck. (Giving things away on Craigslist is the fastest, cheapest method of getting things cleaned out or torn down. People will take absolutely anything if it's free, no matter how much work they have to do to get it.)

The new mailbox is on the front porch, which is more attractive and makes much more sense.

New mailbox
Kingso Locking Stainless Steel Letterbox - amazon.com

The old porch lights were brass carriage house style, which were completely wrong for the house. Here they are in ignominy, sitting in the free CL pile.

Old porch lights

We happily replaced them with something far more in keeping with a 1950s ranch style house. They look great with our door hardware and coordinate nicely with the mailbox.

New porch lights
George Kovacs Outdoor Sconce - allmodern.com

The previous hardwired doorbell had been pulled out of the wall and left on the front windowsill months or perhaps even years before. We replaced it with a Ring Video Doorbell. It works with your smartphone, allowing you see and talk to anyone at your door, even if you're not at home. It also has a motion detector, which alerts you of any movement on your front porch or in your yard.

New doorbell
Ring video doorbell - lowes.com

Finally, we bought a 5-foot doormat to put in front of the double doors. Of all the purchases we made, it is probably my least favorite. I thought it was a plain rubber mat, but it turned out to be the felted type and has to be hosed off more often than a rubber mat would. That aside, I like the pattern, so I'll still chalk it up as a win.

New doormat
Aqua-Shield Elipse Doormat - allmodern.com

All in all, we're making good progress. Next on the list...the terrazzo floors.

Serge Mouille

Serge Mouille (1922-1988) was born in Paris to a policeman and a seamstress. They were disappointed when he decided, at age 13, to enter the School of Applied Arts silver workshop. He was such a gifted student of metallurgy and silversmithing that began teaching at age 25. After receiving his degree, he apprenticed under Gabriel Lacroix and then started his own workshop.

In 1953 Mouille introduced a lighting design, the iconic Three-Arm Floor Lamp. The design was the result of his expertise with metals, as well as his knowledge of musculature and skeletons, making the lamp both minimal and organic in form.

In 1956, gallery owner Steph Simon began showing Mouille's work alongside pieces by Charlotte Perriand, Isamu Noguchi, and Jean Prouvé. Having learned of Mouille's work, Hollywood star Henry Fonda literally turned up on the designer's doorstep and refused to leave unless he could have a lamp. Even though the designer did not know who Mr. Fonda was, he relented, and the actor then owned the first Mouille lamp to hit U.S. shores.

In 1962, Mouille introduced his Colonnes Collection, columns of fluorescent light which were not well received. In fact, a potential partnership with Knoll fell through as a result of Florence Knoll's opposition to the design, and Mouille stopped designing lights, returning the the School of Applied Arts to teach silversmithing and to design jewelry.

From dwr.com
All images from sergemouilleusa.com

Three-Arm Floor Lamp

Three-Arm Ceiling Lamp

Curved-Arm Rotating Sconce

Saturn Sconce

Snail Ceiling Lamp

Signal Floor Lamp

Totem Floor Lamp

Pronunciation Guide

New house: Let the transformation begin!

Furniture is ordered and should be here in six weeks or so. A decision has been made about new countertop to replace the gold and black "flipper's choice" granite, and someone will be out this week to measure. After looking at countless paint chips and putting swatches on the walls, a color has finally been selected, and a painter has been chosen after taking numerous bids. It will be a few weeks before she can start the job, so rather than just sit around waiting, we decided to start replacing light fixtures, since the ceilings don't need new paint.

First up were the simple, flat ones that we want to fade away into inconspicuousness...a couple in the kitchen, one in the entry, and one in the hall. (We had considered something a little fancier in the entry, but we decided that we didn't want it to compete with the dining room fixture.)

lowes.com

The sputnik went up today in the dining room, and the transformation was amazing. Here's the "before" fixture:

And here's what the dining room looks like now, sans gold leaves and teardrop. Picture it with white beams and white walls à la the swatch underneath the windows...and furniture.

This is the 35" sputnik I told you about in an earlier post that sells for less than $200 at Lowe's. As it comes out of the box, it combines the familiar mid-century style with trendier Edison bulbs, which will look good with my daughter's color palette of dark blues and golden yellow. Of course, the bulbs can be changed if they decide on a more traditional sputnik look. If you want a lot of bang for your buck, you can't go wrong with this fixture.

Knoll Sparrow

Earlier this year, Knoll introduced and LED light series designed by Antenna Design. Called the Sparrow, this slim new light has a very small footprint. It is available in a clamp-on or freestanding style. The line's under-cabinet fixture is called Highwire and is available in lengths up to 79 inches.

From knoll.com and interiordesign.net

Clamp-on Sparrow
knoll.com

Freestanding Sparrow
knoll.com

Sparrow in situ
knoll.com

Highwire
interiordesign.net

Double-take

While researching for a post, I happened upon a site...tudò & co...that has interesting lighting offerings...some reproductions and some not.  I won't open the can of worms about the ethical implications of buying replicas/knock-offs. I did that in a series entitled Is It Real? that you can read here, here and here. You get to decide where you stand on that issue. Here are a few samples of their wares.

Benjamin Hubert BH1 and BH2 pendants (replicas)
Original:  $500-650
Tudo and Co:  $165
tudoandco.com

Foscarini Aplomb pendants (replicas)
Original:  $805
Tudo and Co:  $169
tudoandco.com

Tom Dixon Beat pendants (replicas)
Original:  $535
Tudo and Co:  $68
tudoandco.com

OCTO pendant lights (replicas)
Original by Secto:  $1892
Tudo and Co:  $$112
tudoandco.com

Edison filament bulbs
tudoandco.com

In the store: Stiffel Rocket lamps

These brass Rocket lamps are the best of both worlds...elegant and glamorous, yet very space age. Everything is original on these lamps, including the shades and diffusers. These are Stiffel quality with design pizzazz. What more could you want in a lamp?

Rocket lamps for Stiffel

Top view

Lamps in situ

Close up of rocket-style base

You will frequently see these lamps attributed to Tommi Parzinger, but I have seen no evidence that Parzinger ever designed for Stiffel. If you have any catalogs that prove otherwise, I'd love to see them.

In the store: Chandeliers by Sciolari and Greene

Several days ago, I posted about the installation of the huge light designed by Gaetano Sciolari, but I didn't give you a very good look at it. I was too busy breathing into a paper bag so I wouldn't hyperventilate after looking at the huge ladder in my SIL's photo.

The light measures 48"W x 48"D x 91"H (123 cm x 123 cm x 231 cm). It is made of brass and bronze and has 37 lighted Lucite cubes. The light is part of Sciolari's Cubic series and is in excellent original condition.

Now that the ladder has safely been removed, I can enjoy looking at the light...and I hope you will too.

Cubic light by Gaetano Sciolari

View from underneath

Close-up view

We also have a new brutalist chandelier by Tom Greene for Feldman that I haven't shown you before. Look at this magnificent piece.

Just look away

Did I mention I have a fear of heights? Well, I do...and these photos my SIL posted on Facebook haven't helped one bit. Last week I was at the store when he was hanging a light, and, as usual, the experience was harrowing. Admittedly, it was a small light that was easily carried up a ladder, but that did very little to allay my anxiety. I noticed a gigantic Sciolari chandelier on the floor awaiting installation and made a mental note not to be there when it went up.

Whenever he climbs a ladder while I'm at the store, I go into full-blown phobia mode: knot in stomach, heart in throat and creepy-crawly feeling on the backs of my legs. He's up and down, leaning and stretching, balancing on the top rung in all sorts of precarious positions. Despite his assurances that he's OSHA-compliant and that it's only my vantage point and my propensity for melodrama causing the distress, I keep repeating, "OMG, I can't look. I really can't look," to which he responds, "Then don't. Just look away." After putting up with a few rounds of my hand wringing and squealing like a little girl for him to be careful, he invariably asks me to hand him something, requiring me to A) grope my way in his general direction, my eyes covered with one hand and a pair of pliers held out to him with the other or B) look.

A couple of days ago, he hung the massive Sciolari. He had said it would probably be a two-man job, although I thought four sounded much better. Rather than wait for help, however, he decided to do it alone, without so much as a mother-in-law there to call 911 when he plummeted to the concrete floor. The captions below are his.

One man. One Sciolari. Fight!

Man wins.

If I had been writing the captions, they would have said "Perilously tall ladder. Terrified woman. Faint." and "My grandsons still have a father."

Mid century lamps...the gift that keeps on giving

My SIL walked in a few nights ago bearing gifts for my daughter and me. He had been to an estate sale and had found lamps he thought we'd love...and we did.

He said, "When I saw these, I realized how seldom I buy gifts for the two of you, just because." I've been saying for five years that he's a keeper, and it looks like I was right! Every time we look at our lamps, we'll remember his sweet gesture.

My daughter has a thing for small metal lamps with skinny drum shades that straddle the Art Deco and MCM eras, so you can imagine how delighted she was with these little gems. They're about 15" high with textured cream-colored shades and a Lucite ball on the metal base.

Small modern lamps with drum shades and lucite/metal bases

He chose mine based on my love of the angular base on one of the lamps designed by Otto and Ridi Kolb, as well as the curved necks on many of Gino Sarfatti's lamps. Mine isn't a copy of any of their designs, but it definitely has a similar vibe. While my daughter's lamps are in great condition, the shade on mine needs to be rubbed lightly with steel wool and then primed and painted. I'm going to leave the legs black and paint the shade a pale glossy cream.

Mid-century desk lamp, reminiscent of Kolb lamps

Otto and Ridi Kolb lamp
liveauctioneers.com

I'm headed to Lowe's to pick up a few supplies so I can give my wonderful new lamp a makeover soon, and I'll be sure to share it with you when it's done.