Spaces: No-name room

Since renovations to the house are ongoing, I don't have any final full-room photos to share...and may not for a while. In the next few posts, I thought I'd show you a few corners, walls, and nooks and  here and there throughout the house.

These shots a room between the formal living room and the family room/dining area. We haven't decided quite yet whether to make it an office or a breakfast room. but for now it holds some of our favorite things.

My Remploy dropfront desk, full of pewter and silver treasures

Frank Lloyd Wright brass picture, vintage gooseneck lamp,
Bitossi bird, studio pottery, mid-century "flash cards,"
and various Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian pewter and silver

My daughter's vintage camera, Carstens floor vase,
and repro George Nelson clock

A favorite Ib Kofod-Larsen chair

Corner built-ins with some favorite Scheurich pottery,
Festivo candleholders, Frankoma pieces, along with
 vintage glass beaker and mortar and pestle
from my grandfather's drugstore

Bench obsession

Have you ever had a notion that stuck in the back of your head and simply wouldn't go away? Ever since I first saw a George Nelson platform bench, my brain has been saying, "I want that."

Lately, want has changed to gotta have, so I've been giving serious thought to buying one. Of course, the object of my desire is the walnut version, which ups the price considerably, so now my thoughts need to turn from buying one to affording one.

All images from hermanmiller.com

Lucia DeRespinis

Lucia DeRespinis (1927- ) became an industrial designer in the 1950s when the field was dominated by men.

When she entered the Pratt Institute, she was one of only 3 women in a class of 63. She graduated in 1952 after studying under Rowena Redd Kostellow and Eva Zeisel and went to work for George Nelson, where she says she "designed everything from rugs to tableware to exhibits and trade shows to graphics to restaurants to interiors."

After about a year and a half at the Nelson office, she began to work on clocks with Irving Harper. DeRespinis designed four notable clocks: the Turbine, the Spindle, Model 2237, and the Eye. DeRespinis intended for the Eye clock to be hung horizontally, but Vitra Design Museum offers a vertical orientation and calls it the Lyre.

She later worked freelance, most notably designing the pink and orange Dunkin' Donuts logo for Sandgren & Murtha, Minners & Co. She currently teaches at the Pratt Institute.

From dwr.com and mcmdaily.com

Model 2237
mcmdaily.com

Turbine clock
mcmdaily.com

Spindle clock
mcmdaily

Eye clock
mcmdaily.com

Part 2: How bad is too bad?

Remember when I asked in a post a few days ago if a house could skip "bad" and go straight to "too bad"? After making an appointment to see said house, here is what we found upon entering.

We were a little surprised that the sellers hadn't made even the most minimal effort to clean out the house. It would quite literally take a crew with a dump truck to get rid of all the detritus that was left behind when the previous owner vacated. That's probably one of the reasons it's been sitting on the market for 170 days.

The verdict: It is a lot cooler than we had expected...and in worse shape than we thought, inside and out. In addition to the mounds of trash and abandoned personal belongings, we found obvious water damage, possible mold, and general dilapidation of wood and stone structures outside.

Still, we haven't ruled it out, if for no other reason than that both bathrooms have vintage Pomona tile designed by George Nelson sometime in the late 50s or early 60s for the Distinguished Designer series (which included tiles by Paul McCobb, Millard Sheets, Dorothy Liebes, Saul Bass, Paul Laszlo, and Dong Kingman). At some point, the top of the vanity in one bathroom was replaced with marble, but I found a lot of 76 of the tiles on Ebay, and failing finding the same tile later, we could always have it tiled with a complementary untextured tile. (Yes, I'm already starting to obsess.)

ebay.com

George Nelson

I started this blog September 6, 2010. Some of you have been readers since the beginning. Others have come on board later. From now through the end of the month, I'm going to be on a short blogging break. Not only am I in the middle of a big volunteer project, I'm also trying to help get the new store open, so I've decided share some of my favorite posts from the past four years. I'll throw in a few new photos for you longtime supporters who read the posts when they were first published.


(First post 9/22/2010)

George Nelson (1908-1986) is considered one of the founders of American modernism.  He studied architecture at Yale University and art history at the Catholic University of America, and, along with Eliot Noyes, Charles Eames and Walter B. Ford, he won the Rome prize for architecture in 1932. Despite his architectural training, however, Nelson found few building projects during the Depression and World War II years and began focusing on furniture, industrial and exhibition design.

Nelson traveled throughout Europe and subsequently met several of the early European modernists. Through his writing in “Pencil Points,” he introduced Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Gio Ponti to the American public.

His “storagewall” units, widely publicized through a 1945 issue of Life magazine, doubled as room dividers, redefining the concept of the office. Herman Miller subsequently recruited him, where he served as design director from 1946 to 1965.

During his tenure there, Nelson brought many fine designers to the Herman Miller, including Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, Alexander Girard and Buckminster Fuller. Nelson and the talented designers working for him produced many milestone designs during this time, including the whimsical marshmallow sofa, the coconut chair, the Catenary furniture group, the slat bench and a line of clocks and bubble lamps.

Many iconic designs came out of Nelson's own design firm. As was customary, he received credit...and still does...for the work done by designers employed by his firm.

From georgenelson.org

Marshmallow sofa
classicdesign.it

Catenary chairs
dailyicon.net

Spindle clock
georgenelson.org

Slat bench
treadwaygallery.com

 Coconut chair
architecture.sk

Thin Edge cabinet
mid2mod.com

George Nelson with a display of bubble lamps
from a 1952 copy of Interiors Magazine
modernica.net

Update: 11/24/2013 - I recently ran across this photo of George Nelson that I had never seen before. It's the first really good informal shot of him I've ever seen, and I think it's my new favorite.

miniaturechairman.com

1964 Herman Miller lighting catalog

A couple of years ago, the Modernica blog featured a complete 1964 Howard Miller catalog, which includes all the George Nelson bubble lamps and all the 1964 prices. What a great piece of history!

I'm showing you just enough of the pages to pique your curiosity. There are many more styles, some of which you've probably never seen. To see the entire catalog, follow the link to the Modernica site.

From blog.modernica.net, with attribution to Atomic Pear on flickr.com

In the store: Cabinets by Baughman and Nelson

Two more recent additions to our inventory are these fabulous cabinets...one by Milo Baughman and the other by George Nelson. The walnut Baughman piece was designed for Glenn of California and has plenty of storage options. The iconic Nelson Thin Edge cabinet was designed for Herman Miller and has its original white pulls and aluminum legs. It features ample shelving. Both have been carefully restored.

Milo Baughman cabinet for Glenn of California

Top view of Milo Baughman cabinet

Baughman cabinet's left-side storage

Baughman cabinet's right-side storage

Iconic George Nelson Thin Edge cabinet for Herman Miller

George Nelson Thin Edge cabinet

Thin Edge left-side storage

Thin Edge right-side storage

Close-up of Nelson Thin Edge pulls

In the store: Nelson and Knoll

We just put two gorgeous tables on the floor. One is an early George Nelson design for Herman Miller that has two butterfly leaves, a walnut top and ebony legs. The other is an oval rosewood by Florence Knoll that can be used as a conference table or a dining table.  The Nelson table has been fully restored, and the Knoll table is in very good vintage condition.

Herman Miller tag on George Nelson table

Florence Knoll oval rosewood table

Gorgeous grain on Knoll table

The Hilda Stories

In 1953, a high school dropout in her early twenties named Hilda Longinotti saw an ad in the New York Times for a job as a receptionist for a world-famous architect. She didn't know what an architect was, but she donned her pumps, hat and gloves, straightened the seams of her stockings and went to the George Nelson Office to apply. She was hired on the spot.

At age 43, she left the Nelson Office and went to work for Herman Miller. And now, as part of their remarkable WHY series, Herman Miller has created several short films about Hilda Longinotti's favorite anecdotes about working for George Nelson. Animated by Damien Florébert Cuypers and entitled The Hilda Stories, these charming videos provide a fascinating insight into her 21-year run as Nelson's aide-de-camp. Each one ends with brief comments by Longinotti, who is now in her eighties. I highly recommend your reading the short interview with her on the Herman Miller site. You're going to love this woman!

The Receptionist

hermanmiller.com

Bon Voyage, George

hermanmiller.com

The Case of the Missing Warhols

hermanmiller.com

The last video of the series, called The Woman on the Marshmallow Sofa, premiered today on the Herman Miller site. You can bet I was tuned in for Hilda's next tale. How could I resist after seeing the following photo of her?

Hilda Longinetti modeling the Marshmallow sofa
nytimes.com

The Woman on the Marshmallow Sofa
hermanmiller.com

******************************

Thanks to reader Lauren Fraser for emailing me a link to these great videos. I kept up with the WHY Design series faithfully, but somehow The Hilda Stories had escaped my attention, and I would have hated to miss them. Be sure to check out Lauren's beautiful Etsy store, 2nd Look Vintage.

In the store: George Nelson secretary

This lovely tall secretary now graces our store. Designed by George Nelson for Herman Miller, it has a door on the left, with drawers and a drop-front desk on the right. This is one of those stylish pieces that could quickly become an indispensable storage unit in your home.