Mid2Mod: kingfisher

Showing posts with label kingfisher. Show all posts

Monday, January 27, 2014

You win some; you lose some

Several days ago, I started watching an item on eBay. Not just any item, mind you. It was a wish list item...a Rosenthal Studio Line Porcelaine Noire kingfisher by Tapio Wirkkala. I already have one in white, and I've been on the lookout for its black mate at a reasonable price. For a few days, I thought I had found it.

Then, as so often happens, the price went up drastically in the last hours of bidding and sold for more than triple my bid. In my opinion, the high bidder considerably overpaid...or just wanted it more than I did.

The search continues.

ebay.com - hoboro99

Friday, November 11, 2011

Black and blue

I have a weakness for smalls, and there are a number of them in the store right now that I wish I could find a place for. Although I usually gravitate to oranges and yellows and greens, all the ones currently grabbing my attention happen to be blue and black. And, with the exception of the Wirkkala piece, they are all quite large. Here are some of the new pieces that are my current favorites.

Bottle picture - 22.5" x 19.5"

Blenko decanter - 22"

Murano vase - 16"

Tapio Wirkkala Kingfisher (also called Ice Diver) - 8"L x 4"H


Murano bird - 9"L x 6"H

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Tapio Wirkkala for Rosenthal

We recently had our offer accepted on eBay for a Tapio Wirkkala black kingfisher figurine by Rosenthal, like the one in a photo below. We purchased it from a seller in Germany, and I'm sure you'll see a photo of the actual piece when it comes in. Just a few weeks earlier, we won a pair of beautiful white Rosenthal vases designed by Wirkkala. And, of course, we're still on a quest for one of the large Pollo vases at a price we can afford. Accomplishing this may be more a matter of luck than skillful hunting.

Wirkkala is fast becoming one of my favorite designers because of the simplicity and elegance of his pieces. We currently have one of his Ultima Thule bowls and have sold other pieces of that collection in the store in the past.

I have posted a couple of times about Wirkkala...once about his glassware and another time about a broader range of his designs. Lately, though, I've really been drawn to his black and white matte designs for Rosenthal. His cylindrical Variation collection in black was the first application of Rosenthal "porcelaine noire."

Wirkkala began designing for Rosenthal in the early 1950s, but the Studio-Line (Studio-Linie in German) pieces of the early 1960s are much easier to find, though still rather pricey to purchase. They're so beautiful, however, that to me they are worth every penny.