Mid2Mod: Cyclone

Showing posts with label Cyclone. Show all posts

Saturday, July 28, 2012

It's giveaway time again!

Yes, it's giveaway time at Mid2Mod again, and like last time, I'm running a blog giveaway in conjunction with a giveaway my SIL is doing on Facebook.

I'm offering four pairs of small silver Dansk candleholders designed to hold 1/4-inch tapers. Included are the onion style by Jens Quistgaard, doves and leaves by Gunnar Cyrén and stars, whose designer I do not know. (I estimate the value of these eight candleholders to be approximately $120, based on the average price of the same items currently for sale on eBay and Etsy.)

Dansk candleholders

The rules of the blog giveaway are simple. All you have to do is be a public Google follower (which means you must show up in the Google Followers box as a site member, not follow some other way) AND leave a comment on this post. It's important to do both.

If you're already a Google follower and comment regularly, I'll know who you are, so just say hi. If you don't comment much, remind me that you're already a member, and I'll look you up to verify. (Occasionally, the name attached to your comment is different from the one in the Followers box. If that's the case, tell me, because if I can't find you, I can't count you.)

I'll announce the lucky winner on Saturday, August 4 here on my blog. If you win, you'll email me your address, and I'll ship your prize right out to you. (And, yes, I'll ship internationally!)

It's easy to be a site member. In the Google Followers box to the right of this post, click on Join this site. Once you have set up a Google account, click Follow publicly, and you're done.

As a bonus, when you enter my blog giveaway, you'll automatically be entered in our Facebook giveaway, receiving an extra entry if you're already participating in that contest. You won't believe what my SIL is giving away this time!

Vintage Knoll Cyclone table by Isamu Noguchi

Yes, that's right. He's giving away a genuine vintage 36" diameter Noguchi Cyclone table, which is sale priced at $1100 in the store. These sell new today for $1898.

To enter for a chance to win this iconic table, go to our Facebook page and follow the rules for that contest. And remember you get an extra entry if you join my site (or are already a member) AND comment on this post.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

In the store: Surfaces and seating

Lately we've been buying quite a bit of new inventory, but most of it has been project pieces that are either being restored now or are in line to be refinished or reupholstered, so I haven't posted pictures in a while. We finally picked up a few things that didn't need restoration and went straight to the floor.

Just yesterday morning my SIL picked up this Knoll Cyclone table by Isamu Noguchi. It's a real beauty in excellent original condition which had been used in the break room at a local doctor's office for decades.

Knoll Cyclone table by Isamu Noguchi

Here's a great little Danish tea cart in teak that will soon have new casters. The top lifts off to be used as a tray. I had one similar to this before I got my larger glass-topped one, and I loved it. Whoever gets this one will have a little gem.

Teak tea cart with removable tray

These Danish cane-backed chairs are in great condition. I love the angled backs. If these were mine, I'd reupholster the seats in a heavy, nubby fabric and then put some sort of low, eye-catching table between them.

Danish cane-backed chairs

This is a very early Knoll Tulip table by Eero Saarinen. It has some edge wear, but at the moment we're not planning to have it refinished. This is the type piece some serious collectors prefer in original condition, so we'll probably leave the restoration decisions to the buyer.

Early Knoll Tulip table by Eero Saarinen

Paul McCobb lovers will recognize this Planner Group desk and chair immediately. The iconic pair will probably be sold quickly, as they are in high demand.

Planner Group desk and chair by Paul McCobb

The pièce de résistance is this huge Royal System wall unit by Poul Cadovius. This baby is massive and takes up a huge section of wall in the store. It was bought in Denmark in the 1960s by a friend of my SIL's family.

Royal System wall unit by Poul Cadovius

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was born in Los Angeles, the son of an Irish-American mother and a Japanese father. He spent his childhood in Japan and his adolescence and adulthood in the United States, and for the rest of his life, he was at home in both places.

Noguchi moved to New York to become a pre-med student at Columbia University, where he also enrolled in a sculpture class. Art won out, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927 led to an apprenticeship in the studio of Constantin Brancusi. When he returned to New York, associations with technological visionary Buckminster Fuller and choreographer Martha Graham allowed him to explore new facets of his talent.

His first widely distributed design was the Radio Nurse of 1937, and the later Guardian Ear, an object containing a microphone, would pick up sounds from a child’s room. In 1944 he revised a design he had created to illustrate the George Nelson article “How to Make a Table.” The biomorphic coffee table was put into production in 1947 by Herman Miller and became one of his best-known works.

His famous three-legged cylinder lamp was first made as a gift for his sister in 1944 or 1945. He began designing his beautiful Akari lamps in 1951, which are still manufactured in Gifu, Japan, by the same company that began producing them in the early 1950s. His wire and wood rocking stools were designed in 1953, and in 1957 Hans Knoll enlarged the small stool to the full-size Cyclone Table as a companion piece to Harry Bertoia’s wire chairs.

From the Fifties on, Noguchi’s focus was on what he called “the sculpture of spaces,” and he designed gardens, playgrounds and plazas.

From the essay “Isamu Noguchi: Art Into Life” by Bruce Altshuler on noguchi.org
Photos from noguchi.org.