Off the List

Voucher?

2011-01-12T17:42:00.001Z

OTL - vouchers / gift tokens

2011-01-12T10:13:00.004Z

Make me think of getting book tokens from my grandparents! In fact I have a total aversion to them as they are - in my eyes at least - the lazy option..... why else would I have created Off the List!

(I'm not this old but love the rising sun motif)

.... one has to move with the times.

So we've the task to design a suitable voucher.

House & Garden very kindly....

2011-01-11T11:56:00.002Z

.... made mention of Off the List this January edition. I've always been a little weary of drawing the site to the attention of the antiques trade - that said they are a lazy bunch & only likely to look at the pretty pictures - as it has been our firm intention to under-price the pieces on offer. The reasons are twofold a) if a piece doesn't sell online we can generally cover costs by reselling at auction b) why should they be over-inflated like most of the stock on offer by dealers. Oops potential can of worms.

He was shortly after barked at by....

2011-01-11T11:53:00.005Z

Ged Quinn' take on Stubbs' 'Water Spaniel'

Now I'm after the print by Stubbs

New Yorker never graced the walls but....

2011-01-11T11:49:00.002Z

.....someone else did. Ali.

Off the List

2011-01-11T11:42:00.002Z

2011, can I do this regularly. This is intended to be the year of the list:

Increased traffic
Therefore an essential need to grow the address book
Better & more unusual stock
Better awareness of what 'you' are after
An intention to train buyers - show them the charms of an object - value or no value
Add the bespoke items we've been working on as a separate page

More to come......I hope!

I've dropped the blogging ball!

2009-12-22T14:42:00.003Z

Everything has rather got in the way with the onset of December - yes, yes it's nearly gone - Christmas sales, Christmas presents, preparations for impending three weeks of sun & rubble gazing in Southern India. NON-STOP!

Also, the website has ratched up somewhat, with sales well up on the previous year - whether or not this is due to different stock or more efficiency having been injected by new partner. Good news all round.

Perhaps the most exciting news is our latest acquisition:

Much to look forward to post the Indian extravaganza with a new hang in order.

Have a wonderful Christmas one and all.

The utterly wonderful......

2009-11-30T19:50:00.001Z

Syrie Dining Chair

Coco de Mer in polished bronze

2009-11-30T19:49:00.002Z

The 'Stirrup' Light

2009-11-30T19:48:00.002Z

Webb tasters

2009-11-30T19:47:00.002Z

The 'Halo' light

Handles

2009-11-30T19:31:00.004Z

I've been busy tearing off the bottom of the newly built and painted cabinets in the dining room - this is entirely due to my laziness; basically i have been avoiding bending down to pull open the cupboard doors carefully with my paws and resorting to using the tip off my shoes. Until today that is - issue resolved (& no, I have not overcome my legendary idleness - or terribly bad back). Today i took delivery of

The Helter Handle from Webb

The smaller version on the right but in antique bronze as per the door handle on the left. Nanz eat your heart out, this Scot has an ever growing range of door furniture and I covet the lot.

The originally named 'Link' turning handle

The super cool 'Blimp' - this shall be the final barrier before my Gabinetto Segreto.

Coveting this

2009-11-26T19:43:00.002Z

The maquette for Guy the Gorilla at London Zoo (one of my namesakes)

Launching (quietly) this

2009-11-26T19:42:00.002Z

What I've been up to

2009-11-26T19:27:00.002Z

Image from The Peak of Chic

Wednesday for breakfast here.

Silence

2009-11-19T10:19:00.002Z

Is not golden in this instance:

a) I'm flat-out at Olympia (Erotica 09 starts at the weekend for some amusement) selling antiques - http://www.olympia-antiques.co.uk/ - super dull punters & exhibitors.

b) Getting the new website into as many ears and mailboxes as possible - http://www.offthelist.co.uk/ - spread the word; we'll ship to the States too.

Sir Thomas Tresham’s Triangular Lodge

2009-11-02T10:47:00.003Z

Was what leapt to mind on seeing the aforementioned stool - image care of Martin Sutton / Flickr.

The ultimate in Symbolist Architecture, was built in the late 16th century by Thomas Tresham in Rushton, Northamptonshire. A devout Catholic who was imprisoned for his beliefs on his release he built this ode to the Holy Trinity.

I think the stool is very much in the 'Antiquarian' taste of the mid-nineteenth century.

A 19th.C.Carved Oak Triangular Stool,Later Painted

2009-10-31T19:13:00.002Z

Most irritating day - I failed to buy this against an estimate of 30 - 50 Pounds. Livid.

A) I woke up at 7.30 am on a Saturday morning.

B) The sale was slow and late starting.

C) I bid up to £400 and was the under-bidder

D) I should have gone with my gut and bid on

The problem is I have to pay for India for a month, a birthday present and a Birthday Party but I am still absolutely furious at not being the buyer.

To top it all off I know I shall see it again..................

I shall explain why I covet it so at a later / non-irritated date. Also when it isn't my birthday and have 14 people to stay.

Forgive the spleen venting.

It's my wife's B-day party this evening.......

2009-10-29T17:37:00.003Z

......and the theme is London Gothic (forgive the editing)........my costume arrives any minute and I've not a clue what it might be!

Une plaisanterie

2009-10-29T17:33:00.004Z

Jean-Leon Gerome (1850 - 1913)

Yours to bid on at Christies in a few weeks time - I spotted it on the cover of the catalogue this morning at South Ken and wasn't sure whether it leapt out because of the similarity of the dog to mine or because of the wonderful tile panels (see title of blog); anyway catalogue was bought and bank balance checked - NOPE!

Twombly in the steps of Blake

2009-10-29T16:46:00.002Z

Winters here and the fires on and........

2009-10-28T21:48:00.001Z

.........Freud influenced this photo. My wee beastie.

Cy Twombly - many years before

2009-10-28T21:38:00.004Z

I was once set the task of copying a Twombly canvas - I failed but have wanted one ever since. All in good time.

Rome

2009-10-28T21:17:00.007Z

Almost a year ago to the day my darlin' wife took me on a seriously wonderful B-day weekend - just found these pictures.....how cool is it to be able to photograph on the Capitoline!

Pictures utterly untouched but by God the place is spectacular - and the restaurants were spot on too.

The reason I was harking back was that it's her 30th and I'm not sure I can trump her!!!!

An unexpected find

2009-10-28T10:08:00.004Z

Picture the scence:

North of England
Walled garden
Perfect herbaceous border
Thatched Edwardian summerhouse
Spades, hoes, bamboo canes, plastic plant pots, Roman tombstones, wheelbarrow
Rain
Sundial
ROMAN TOMBSTONES!!!!!!!!

Did you spot them?

Chatsworth Sculpture Gallery

2009-10-20T09:35:00.003+01:00

I am borrowing a vast tract from someone infinitely more able to explain the gallery than me - Professor Alison Yarrington, who has just overseen the 'restoration' of the gallery:

William Spencer Cavendish became the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1811, and as part of his development of Chatsworth House during the 1820s and early 1830s he created a new north wing that included a Sculpture Gallery to house his collection of contemporary sculpture, the majority of which was sourced in Rome, and other rare and precious marbles. A major project was begun to re-display the sculpture gallery began in 2008 and was completed in 2009.

After the Duke’s death, his thoughtfully arranged collection of sculptures and bases was gradually dispersed elsewhere in the house and garden. The Sculpture Gallery has now been returned to the way it looked in 1857, the year before he died.

The re-display is part of the Chatsworth Masterplan, a major project of essential restoration and development to safeguard Chatsworth's heritage and continue its history. The Sculpture Gallery project has required months of work. Historical evidence has been found and evaluated, missing pieces have been re-discovered and many tons of stone and marble have been carefully re-positioned by a team from Chatsworth and Cliveden Conservation. The lions have been raised to their original height, sculptures have been brought out of their niches in the Orangery, and the central Berlin granite tazza (vase) had to be dismantled to bring it in from the Garden. The Sculpture Gallery re-opened to the public in March 2009.

Professor Alison Yarrington is academic adviser to the Sculpture Gallery project, working with Charles Noble (Curator, Fine Arts & Loans, Chatsworth), Matthew Hirst (Head of Arts and Historic Collections, Chatsworth), Hannah Obee (Curator, Decorative Arts, Chatsworth), Andrew Peppitt and Stuart Band (Archivists, Devonshire Archives).

http://www.chatsworth.org/

The gallery has spectacular works by Canova and Thorvaldsen amongst others but my favourite thing is the use of rare marbles.

Chatsworth

2009-10-19T17:14:00.002+01:00

A couple of other things I love about the house:

The exteriors of the South facing windows are gilded.
The Sculpture gallery is utterly beguiling.

Book

2009-10-19T16:46:00.003+01:00

I've started the research and it's like being back at school but actually having a ball. Joy and rapture.

This picture was taken at the place of the epiphany - the Chatsworth Sculpture gallery - and though I have ambled through here dissecting the minutiae I had never spotted this small window of delight:

The note below - I had hoped to be able to read it from the photo - records them as being used by Canova in December 1802. No doubt given by the sculptor to the 6th Duke of Devonshire. Such a subtle location too.

2000 years - has man really evolved?

2009-10-15T10:11:00.003+01:00

I'm glad to say that it appears we have not. Never has Aphrodite been more lovely, modern or coveted (coveted to the tune of $1,426,500) - I asked for it for my birthday and Christmas.

On the subject of Thistles.....

2009-10-15T09:08:00.005+01:00

......we have discovered the artist who will (by begging, reasoned debate & blackmail) be commissioned (she's super busy) to (I hope) paint a piece for the wall of our dining room.

Sarah Graham, a London based botanical artist, caught our attention at the Sims Reed gallery with a single, large-scale, iris which was a) unbelievable fresh & striking b) the perfect blue!

Stolen Fern, 2009. (65" by 44")

Amaryllis, 2009. (52.5" by 40")

Iris Frieze, 2008. (118" by 39")

Iris Frieze is exactly what I have in mind for the dining room; fingers crossed. Those of the beady-eye among you will no doubt have bells ringing with regards to Sarah's work.........look no further than Bunny William's Kips Bay show room - a heavily discussed topic earlier in the year. William's used a pair of flowering Artichokes either side of the fireplace; they somewhat stole the show.

This Thistle

2009-10-15T09:05:00.002+01:00

Rolls off the tongue so wonderfully - THISTLE - which is probably part of the reason for buying this THISTLE with no rhyme or reason........ All 2 and a half feet of it

Oxford Wednesday 7th October 2009

2009-10-09T09:59:00.005+01:00

Venue: Bonhams Oxford

Sale: The Robin Symes Collection - to sell without reserve

To those of you following the Banier / Bettancourt story in France, there is also another case ebbing and flowing through courts across the World at the mo - that of the Papadimitriou vs. Symes story. Symes was at the very top of his game - antiquities - until the tragic death of his partner Christo Michaelides when things took a nasty turn. Read the story, perhaps biased here:

http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/projects/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue15/watson.htm

Anyway, thats by-the-by, I'm more interested in Bonhams on Wednesday which was full to brimming with some of the greats of the European antiques trade, circling the contents of one of Symes' warehouses. From Picasso drawings to homo-erotic photographs to Antiquities - needless to say the sale went down a storm.

Here are a few of the gems:

Lot 205 - £15,600

Lot 204 - £14,400

Lot 155 - Estimate £200 - 300

Lot 155 (5 in the lot) - £21,600

Lot 133 (inuit goggles) - £4,800

Lot 88 (Kupka) - £28,800

Lot 61 (Picasso) - £28,800

Lot 231 - £7,800

Lot 2 (Tiepolo) - £8,640

Presumably the expectation is that all of the above had suitably placed estimates before the sale - not so everything was low hundreds!

Expect many to rise from the ashes at the Armory, Olympia, Maastricht and perhaps into museums..........

The watercolours

2009-10-05T12:45:00.003+01:00

Watercolour (a) is the image that should excite interest. Popping up in Spain and catalogued correctly as being by Edward Dayes there are the two images in the lot; price 300 - 500 Euros, date 1791.

The image depicts Horace Walpole's 'Strawberry Hill House' the Gothic masterpiece.

This print of the image is held in the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale amongst a large collection about the house and Walpole, including original watercolours from the same spot by Paul Sandby. Both the Twickenham museum itself and the Lewis Walpole would / should give their eye-teeth to get their mitts on this watercolour.............and they've gone and withdrawn it from sale!!!!! Answers as to why are not forthcoming.

Discoveries

2009-10-01T16:09:00.003+01:00

Better known as Sleepers in the trade, every once in a while, one stumbles upon a hidden gem in an auction; it happens all too infrequently truth be told. Perhaps once a year. You keep the discovery under your hat becoming increasingly excited as the days wear on to the hammer drop and all the while you dig, delve and fret yourself to the conclusions your gut had already alerted you to.

So tell me about these pictures - lets call them a & b. We shall come back to them.

I have had a few finds over the years, the first was a very good and very well bought Anglo-Chinese card table which only required the lightest waxing. I sold it quickly for a good profit to a dealer in NYC who then went on to double up and sell the piece:

£146 became £8500 became approx $32,000

Another instance was three years ago on a visit to Cambridge, the intention was to buy a pair of chairs (I did and they are in my drawing room) but slumped in a corner was a very close approximation of this

Yup, those eagled eye souls who spotted the mirror in the background of the Arnolfini Marriage, are getting gold stars. Mine, was ebonised on beech, with a convex mirror of the perfect patina but the roundels were made from the centres of Kangxi period porcelain plates. Everything about it sang.

It was late nineteenth century and had all the hallmarks of an artist made prop, to my initial eyes at least. A phone bid was booked and back to town.

I'm very terrier-like when on the case and a well stocked library helps but it wasn't until I drew the outline for my girlfriend that she pointed out the van Eyck link. Coupled with the late nineteenth century age I headed into the Aesthetic territory to discover this

Designed by Thomas Jeckyll for Heath Old Hall, the home of Edward Green and sold by Christies in 1999. The Fine Art Society purchased this particular overmantle. Mine and this are brother and sister. I would also like to think that the FAS were the purchasers of the Arnolfini mirror at the ripe sum of £18,250 (the estimate had been 3 - 400); I just didn't have the banking legs at that time.

So back to the watercolours - have you figured them out?

The Circus Bedroom

2009-10-01T11:54:00.003+01:00

Popping up in a sale in Dorset in a couple of weeks is this little delight for a mere £300 - 400 a little bit of Cecil Beaton's 'Circus Bedroom' could be yours (+ 19.5% commission / shipping / restoration....but lets forget about the nitty gritty). It certainly needs a new seat and looking atthe back, I've an inkling a bit of pub vinyl-leatherette restoration may have gone on but what a great piece. One of it's companion side tables can be seen below

Same sale, brings a smile to one's face.

2009-09-30T17:47:00.002+01:00

Colonel Alexander Gardner

2009-09-30T17:33:00.004+01:00

At the risk of treading on the Sartorialists toes I give you:

'Colonel Alexander Gardner (1785-1877) dressed in tartan and looking the part of an eccentric Mahraja. He became Colonel of Artillery under Ranjit Singh, avoided confronting British Forces in the Sikh Wars and then served at the Mahraja of Kashmir from 1846.'

He can be bought - along with other as yet unseen images - from Dominic Winter Book Auctions for the princely sum of 5-7000K

How I love a turban.

Snakes

2009-09-29T15:21:00.003+01:00

What's more they made £55,250 against a 4- 600 k estimate. More shall no doubt be heard about them!

Sezincote II

2009-09-29T10:54:00.007+01:00

Sezincote have their own website with a decidedly Indian slant to their photographs - click the first word - but the garden is not well represented. I'm also going to have to dig out my dissertation and see what else I have forgotten......... Thinking about it, after certain elements in the garden were stolen (I had a hand in their return) this is hardly surprising.

These pictures are from the now seemingly defunct www.bethdow.com

Again, train of thought takes over and I've noticed that snake - that's not to say I hadn't spotted it before - but it reminds me of this pair of snakes in bronze that I viewed yesterday at Sothebys about which I have a theory

They are, uncatalogued, the newel posts of a staircase...... Basically the bannister would have run through the middle of the curled tail and come to rest in the pit above the eyes of the snakes head.

Sezincote

2009-09-29T10:28:00.006+01:00

This table courtesy of Christies and a forth coming sale leads me to this

The spectacular and truly unexpected Gloucestershire pile built by Samuel Pepys Cockerell in the early 19th century. Onion domes, jali screens and nandi bulls abound - my absolute favourite house on the island.

It sits perfectly on a rise with a perfect dropping hill into which Humphrey Repton designed an Indian (ish) landscape. The drawings and watercolours of the Daniell brothers were definitely referred too as they were for the design of the house itself. Not content with such greats of the period, Mrs Eleanor Coade was also employed to supply statuary for the gardens. Joy and rapture. More pics are promised.

For the Eyes Of Pigtown Design.

2009-09-25T18:06:00.003+01:00

Maybe a little less over-grown!!!

In relation to the http://pigtown-design.blogspot.com/ discussion of the perfect front wall

New Website

2009-09-24T09:45:00.002+01:00

I am increasingly aware that this blog is veering from the original path; this is a) due to my web designer disappearing to NYC (and being a wee bit hectic / lacking sufficient stimulus from me) and b) because it has become an interesting ground to mull over ideas, projects and purchases. However, we are getting there with the site and I'm promised a soft launch in ten days or so.....I also need to get up to speed with Wordpress between now and then. Here's the homepage

Emily Allchurch

2009-09-24T09:35:00.004+01:00

Lost Horizon (After Etty)

Winter Landscape (After Friedrich)

Outlook (After Claude)

Setting No.3 (After Claude)

Setting No.2 (After Canaletto)

Ideal City (After della Francesca)

Setting No.1 (After Claude)

From Newton to Allchurch by way of.......

2009-09-24T09:31:00.003+01:00

This is a work - after Algernon Newton - by an artist called Emily Allchurch who I discovered after a friend bought an earlyish work by her 5 or 6 years ago. She achieves the same unsettling calm as Newton in her large-scale transparencies mounted as light boxes.

Algernon Newton

2009-09-23T13:57:00.004+01:00

The Bracegirdles remind me too of the works of Algernon Newton (1880 - 1968) who had a similar ability to unsettle the viewer - difficult to describe but they have the effect of suggesting that a great event has either just happened or will any minute:

Image courtesy John Adams Fine Art

Image courtesy Compton Verney Collection

'A Gleam of Sunlight, 1966'. Tate Collection

Charlotte Bracegirdle

2009-09-23T12:03:00.002+01:00

Further the painting in the Handegan interior, I thought I would post a few of Charlotte Bracegirdle' images as a reference, it seems unlikely that the work in Charleston is by her and it is a prime example of there never really being an original thoughts.

Amelia T. Handegan

2009-09-22T17:10:00.005+01:00

I generally feel I'm up to speed with the World' decorators but every so often someone steps into my path and smacks me hard in the face and Amelia T. Handegan is the most recent decorator to take a swing.

Great use of space - oh to be a child again - simple, refined and best of all, I've a similar space!
Half shutters but slim and considered - nice touch, hanging the small portrait from them - near immaculate upholstery on the armchair and I like the painting, similar to Charlotte Bracegirdle's works, which shall soon be added to our collection.

Amelia T. Handegan

Tickled me

2009-09-17T17:12:00.003+01:00

Potterton Books - World of Interiors

2009-09-17T09:54:00.003+01:00

The tempting little literary emporium just round the corner from me just sent out this email - for the slight sum of £950 to full run of Interiors can be yours.

If only this had come a few years back before we started piecing a collection together from junk shop and Oxfam finds.

However, still on the subject of Potterton Books we took delivery of a ready made library last night - well it has extended my already bursting at the seems collection by another 4 feet - the result of dear dear friends buying books for our wedding presents; oh happy joyous day!

Arriving 20 odd minutes later at..........

2009-09-16T12:35:00.004+01:00

From the Country Life Library

Country Life Picture Library

Privately owned and therefore I'm not really in a position to name but utterly utterly wonderful. The position is spectacular, the terrace in the first picture looks directly over to Florence where we had dinner:

The house was open to peruse and a Mannerist gem it is - I shall oh & ah further after lunch.

St. James' Florence

2009-09-16T12:29:00.003+01:00

Piping hot in tails but a delightful (& tearful) service none-the-less. Mrs OTL admirably lead the Bridesmaids and I croaked through a variety of hymns.

On to the buses with family and off out of the Porta Romana..........

Been reading but incapable of posting.

2009-09-16T10:23:00.009+01:00

Why? You may well ask...... I might even have to resort to pictures as words.

We have just spent a long weekend in Firenze as Bridesmaid (not me!) and Usher (Groomsman) to very very dear friends. It went something like this:

Wednesday night - a late arrival - at Casa Guidi the apartment owned by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the Nineteenth Century and now part of Eton' portfolio (available through the Landmark Trust). This sits nearly next door to the Pitti Palace and is a great striking point for the city.

Thursday morning - we slept in bunk beds which was novel -up lateish and off to the Horne Museum a little known collection put together in the Nineteenth century by an Englishman and housed in a Palazzo on Via dei Benci. Incidentally Mrs Off the List loves the Osteria dei Benci, which is nearly directly opposite - better for dinner.

The Horne has a perfect collection of both furniture and paintings:

Piero di Cosimo, St. Girolamus. XV Century

16th Century Games Board

16th Century Coffer

The courtyard grills - carved from the solid they had the feel of Indian jali's - utterly wonderful details that one really shouldn't notice.

The courtyard wall - the bust had the feel (though a poor little sister) of Bernini's Costanza Bonarelli.........sort of.

We then trecked across town to take out the in-laws for lunch before having a quick scoot around the plaster cast studio beside Charles Cecil's Drawing schools called the Galleria Romanelli

You cannot take photographs but this gives you a hint

The afternoon saw us move into our spectacular hotel on Santa Maria Novella JK Place which was where the brides party was all put up - very spoiling!

All the above was mere fore-play mind you..........

On Friday morning (after rather a serious dinner) with a sore head we met at the feet of David for a guided tour around the Uffizi where the essentials were discussed in depth - it's been many years since my days of Art History and whilst I was superbly taught, the lady who took us around the various Botticelli's etc was a marvel - it's now suggested that Botticelli's Birth of Venus

was in fact designed as a banner for a jousting tournament! However it was the sculpture that really grabbed me (though no one else it seems) whether Renaissance or ancient I just love marble (an interesting sale is coming up in the next few weeks which shall have to be discussed). I digress............midway through our tour & all of a sudden a large pair of doors are thrown open revealing a descending staircase

The VASARI CORRIDOR! Just fifteen of us........

What I was not aware of was that in 1993 the Mafia placed a bomb outside the Uffizi (and various other sites in Italy) which tore the heart out of the landing from which the above photograph was taken near destroying a number of Caravaggio's - these have been left as a reminder of the event.

The corridor is impressive in concept but lacking in quality content however it has the feel of a true interior as opposed to a curated interior - you get my gist?

Another patch of vandalism occurs at the central point on the crossing over the Ponte Vecchio. The corridor is lit with grilled port holes along its length except at the middle of the Arno where Mussolini and his legions decided that a diminutive visitor from central Europe ought to have a view down the river without peering through one of the holes that had, for centuries, been good enough for Medici' and Popes alike. Ggrrrrrr.

The unspoilt run of windows.

Mussolini's unbroken view

Interior porthole

We finished at the Pitti Palace.

More to come..............

Sunday shopping!

2009-09-07T11:39:00.003+01:00

Wedding = Hangover = Retail Therapy = Red Lacquer Chairs

A pair, red lacquer circa 1930's I should think. THe only problem is that I am being forced to sell the pair of black Queen Anne style ones that were only bought a couple of months ago - hell!

10:10

2009-09-04T11:52:00.002+01:00

10% reduction in carbon footprint by 2010 (next year!) is being pushed here in the UK as I heard on the radio this morning - even though Pigtown Design was blogging about this yesterday!

I have just taken delivery of a nest of Rosewood (probably Brazilian) tables designed by Severin Hansen Jr. and made by Haslev in the mid-sixties; I've had pieces by them before but it wasn't until I was thinking about the old climate warning chestnut, that I put two-and-two together. Haslev were - whether by accident or design - light years ahead with their logo; Bambi in logging hell

I hope this is large enough to make out the left-hand label.....

Found it!

2009-09-04T10:14:00.003+01:00

As previously mentioned I've been hunting for the picture of the tented wardrobe. A poor picture but you get the gist none the less. Image courtesy of Patrick Jefferson and sadly long ago sold.

Nandi Bulls

2009-09-01T14:03:00.003+01:00

This is one of the pair of aforementioned Nandi bulls bought in Galle - doesn't it look unbelievable ugly! A good reason not to use one's mobile telephone camera.

Peak of Chic - Tent Obsession

2009-09-01T13:11:00.005+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I charged madly around my picture files trying to track down (I failed) pictures of an Edwardian tented wardrobe we had in stock a couple of years ago; it was a version of a Victorian stripped beach hut with an ogee dome and striped fabric - too cool and something someone will copy sometime soon, no doubt.

Anyway, I much enjoyed all of the images posted

http://thepeakofchic.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-tent-obsession.html

What joys and raptures it was to spend Saturday nights celebrating a country wedding by being transported to the midst of the Sahara........

The following couple of (poor) pictures are taken from the marquee companies website - we were not squinting through an orange haze, I assure you - and are the exact version of the tent in which we drank splendidly, ate till popping and reveled in true Dionysian spirit.

Much as I would love to post pictures of the tent itself a) it wasn't my party b) the camera failed - a bad workman etc!

Oh! And it had large Oushak type carpets as flooring but not this disparate low level tables and seating!

Dining room lantern

2009-08-28T16:58:00.004+01:00

It's the chain that's playing hard to get......

Inspiration from HM Luther in NYC - http://www.hmluther.com - who also has a pair of Swedish chandeliers designed by Ellis Bergh, which are equally inspiring

So many things to want in life.

Fleeing to the country.........

2009-08-28T16:54:00.000+01:00

Charles Townley's Library in Park Street

2009-08-27T15:36:00.005+01:00

Further the pair of carved Roman marble bulls - perhaps by Vincenzo Pacetti - it is interesting to note the pair being bothered by angels on the top of Charles Townley's bookcase.

What a marvellous room.

Still charging

2009-08-27T15:15:00.003+01:00

This is the picture that started this bull thing off - bought for stock but now propped among my Indian collection of pictures whilst we debate if it will fit in with the late 18th / early 19th collection of topographical landscapes in our drawing room. This image does it no justice, though it is in fact the only image I saw of it before buying it 'blind', in the flesh it has a depth of paint that gives it fantastic charm and suggests a more capable hand than expected.

I have always wanted one of Francois Pompon' (1855 - 1933) Indian Runner Ducks but this is pretty wonderful too, though I cannot work out what the streams down the sides are?

Utterly spectacular - Ancient Persian.

I do not have a picture at hand but the painting would, now I think about it, sit very well beside a pair of polychrome painted carved Nandi bulls bought in my favourite Sri Lankan city of Galle - decided, it shall remain!

What was it AAl said.................to "de" or not to de (missed that but was directed by the capable Little Augury - my thanks)

By Jove I'm Feeling Bullish

2009-08-27T14:58:00.002+01:00

Jupiter as a Bull. Parian, circa 1800.

Ancient Greek with script to flanks.

Marble bull in the plot of Dionysios of Kollytos 345 - 338 B.C. Athens.

Roman, circa 1800. Perhaps from the Workshops of Pacetti.

Goats & Dogs are usually my thing but these are phenomenally covetable - bar, perhaps the first Parian 'Jupiter as a Bull' which just fitted the Jove reference - along with my serious need for a good Indian carved Nandi Bull (more to follow).

The Egyptian Capital......

2009-08-26T16:22:00.006+01:00

.....has set me thinking about what other unexpected architectural treasures pop up in unexpected places.

Virginia Water in Surrey has a little piece of North African Classicism in the form of columns and cross-bars from Leptis Magna

Photo courtesy Len Williams http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/705840

These have recently been restored and the local paper in true dumbing down / PC spirit give the upper images here the caption 'The ancient Leptis Magna ruins, which were donated to the UK by Libya in 1818' in fact - Christopher Woodward's book In Ruins is the best place to learn more - they were 'removed' from their original site and given to George IV.

Then there are the most obvious of misplaced architectural gems - the two 'Needles' one gradually rotting on the Embankment in London the other in NYC, also apparently rotting though it stands, as it was intended, on bronze crabs (I think?).

Central Park, NYC
The Embankment, London

My memory defeats me but I shall post more when it's feeling more generous!

The Nineteenth Century Picturesque

2009-08-26T14:47:00.006+01:00

I was waylaid by Mary Howitt's 1856 publication 'Illustrated Library for the Young' this weekend. Having a stray magpie gene, my eye way caught by the scarlett morocco leather cover with punched gilt tooling and it had to be opened; how refreshing to find a book in our shelves that had not had a few of the choicest illustrations removed and framed or used in a scrap album.

Oddly, it was not the Cobra - though a marvellous specimen he is - that caught my attention; it was the fallen Egyptian capital. Entirely secondary to the scene, it, to my eye at least, stals the attention totally. And so the pictures went on

A pack (?) of Hyena's strolling across an Ottoman hillside amongst the turbaned tombstones of Turkish men or

A magnificent fountain in the middle of a wildfowl strewn lake.

Totally bewitching.

Dining room lights

2009-08-21T16:16:00.003+01:00

We have inherited ceiling mounted spots with our dining room (previously a bedroom) which are utterly loathsome; how to resolve?

The walls are painted one of the multitude of whites available on the market - Paper & Paints I think - with the woodwork, coving and pair of multi-paned sash windows all in a deep rich dark(ish) blue. The room is square with a chimney breast on one wall (next project to remove and replace existing surround) and is waiting on the perfect round dining table:

a) Because I don't like our existing one

b) Because it will limit the numbers she insists on inviting; I can only really manage 6 - 8 at a max. Am I terribly dull!

c) Because it gives me good reason to hunt.....

So back to the lights. The spots will go to be replaced by what? There are obviously a number of options - as many as paint colours on the market - however I do have some old friends kicking around in the stores which. I feel, need to move from project-in-the-offing to project on the bench and with a home to go to. One of these is a silver-plate hexagonal framework for a hanging light like this one in Cindy Crawford's house, decorated by Mr. Smith

Mine is slightly more elegant and most likely English but lacks - and here's the rub - chains, light pendant and most of the material, it does, however retain a wonderful sliver trim

which would hang about the bottom of the fabric 'tube' - I envisage this being blue to match the woodwork at the exterior and white inside to shine a pool of light onto the table top........

Then nothing more than candles on the table and side lamps around the room.

It suddenly occurs that it might appear like we were having a seance every dinner party!!!!

Niall Hobbhouse, Hadspen in it's previous clothing.

2009-08-18T15:38:00.005+01:00

I've been back to look at all of these images after a posting by An Aesthete's Lament, who posted a wonderful picture of Antoine Potier, circa 1790. The question / statement was the amazing freshness of an interior (exterior to be strict) depicted two hundred years ago & how still we use and remain fascinated by the exotic; something I am entirely subject to. As were, evidently, Blackmer & Hobhouse. However, Blackmer is sadly no longer with us though pieces from his house do periodically pop up on the market & Hobhouse seems to have de-cluttered; the contents of Hadspen (Somerset) were sold through Christies last year.

Will I de-clutter.....ever? I get closer and closer with each day.

2009-08-18T15:27:00.004+01:00

Guest bedroom in the Athens Apartment.

I have only posted three of the pictures as the scanner drives me loopy but they each make me smile each time I look at them and as I only usually look at them in the May 1983 issue of World of Interiors, it's a fairly rare occurrence - basically I do not want to grow tired of the pleasure it gives me to flick open that particular issue!

Harry Blackmer, Athens continued

2009-08-18T15:25:00.002+01:00

Favourite houses

2009-08-18T15:21:00.006+01:00

The Entrance of Harry Blackmer's apartment, Athens. Photographed by James Mortimer for World of Interiors in May 1983.

Studio Job's Factory

2009-08-15T15:26:00.006+01:00

I have to get myself one of these!

This is one Studio Job's - a Dutch based design duo - pieces from their Robber Baron series which I had come across early last year and then forgotten about. I rediscovered the work whilst researching the US embassy's planned move south of the river and got totally sidetracked by the Power Station.

Isn't this legendary, it's also pretty expensive but as a piece I'd rate it high on accruing major value over the years - a future antique.

The other piece I'd get from the five piece collection is the Cabinet:

Which appears to have gotten on the wrong side of a loaded canon! It reminds me of a rather plain bell tower in Bratislava with a Napoleonic era cannonball lodged in its side - much like a rather fetching beauty spot.

I may have to find myself a Boulle cabinet to sit as the pair to the piece!

Cambodian zoomorphic betel nut boxes

2009-08-12T00:00:00.005+01:00

"Now the Peke, although people may say what they please, Is no British Dog, but a Heathen Chinese."

From 'The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles' by TS Eliot

This is what immediately sprung to mind on seeing this box and it isn't far wrong - not a heathen Chinese but a rather fine piece of silversmithing by Cambodian Khmer. It is fashioned from sheets of solid beaten silver - in this case unusually large at a foot long - into a storage box for betel nut or the accoutrement needed in its chewing / preparation. Five will find their way onto the List, alongside this one, a deer, a large turtle, a bird and a smaller version of the one illustrated here. They all date from between 1920 and 1950, the height of their popularity being between the wars.

Stella Snead

2009-08-11T23:59:00.010+01:00

Stella Snead was a British - but US based - surrealist painter and photographer who died, at the age of 96, in early 2006. Relatively unknown as a surrealist artist, she was taught by Amédée Ozenfant (alongside Leonora Carrington) at his eponymous art school in London from 1936.

There is a long chronology of Stella Snead' life - written in the first person - on the following website:

http://www.archipelago.org/vol3-1/chronology.htm

Which should give an insight into her better than I am able to do briefly. However, my interest is in her photographs a number of which I shall be uploading to www.offthelist.co.uk

Snead's move from painting into photography was triggered by the death of her mother and a renewed wanderlust, in 1956. She settled in India in 1960 and remained there until 1971, when these works were probably taken and developed by Snead. It seems likely that they were used to illustrate any one of the five books that Snead either wrote or was responsible for supplying photographs for. The following is the front cover image of the University of Chicago Press's 'Animals in Four Worlds - Sculptures from India' this is almost certainly a contemporary image to the one above:

(With thanks to both the UCP and Amazon)

Howard and Sons

2009-08-11T15:28:00.008+01:00

Images courtesy of Christies.

These three sofas have all sold at Christies in London over the past six months - the drab upholstered version in late 2008 - with estimates of £2,000 to £3,000. All were made in the first 30 odd years of the 20th century by Howard & Son of Berners Street. All of them are supremely comfortable but do they warrant the prices they achieved at auction; the 1st made £16,250, the 2nd made £13,125 and the 3rd £8,125. All need re-upholstery and lets assume that they probably require their frames re-glueing too.....perhaps another £2,000 plus each.

The firm were a well-known and patronised cabinetmakers throughout the Victorian era, stamping nearly all their furniture, which was of a good if not spectacular quality. However, it only seems to be recently that their real forte has begun to be appreciated; the supreme comfort and elegance of their sofas and armchairs.

So why the huge prices for old sofas that have been copied by everyone from George Sherlock - http://www.georgesherlock.com/product/Edward+Sofa - to Soane - http://www.soane.co.uk/Shop/Details.aspx?Product=BunnySofaEnlarged - which are nigh on identical and copied exactly from the originals. Why these huge prices? Sadly, I'm unable to give an answer but it intrigues me. I've sat in them and they really are the perfect place to watch television from but........ Oh and I'd forgotten that we are supposed to be in recession and only the most important works of art and furniture are still making majot prices.

2009-08-11T10:49:00.004+01:00

This blogging lark's becoming a little compulsive; one delves into a favoured site and then discovers their favourite sites and on and on it goes until the day has wasted away and you've a headful of things like am I going to add arches into my bedroom corridor or does the cheapness of a Goan sisal carpet warrant buying flights to India?

This mornings aimless wanderings took me to http://habituallychic.blogspot.com/ and her discussion on lack of signal / old-school telephones something of an Off the List favourite. This little tablescape sat at the top of the stairs at home last winter. However, I'm now going to have to track down the pink version in Slim Aarons' photograph of Joan Collins for all you girls out there.

Image courtesy of Habitually Chic - Merci.

Island life.

2009-08-10T17:51:00.003+01:00

Victoria > Gatwick > enough time to listen to a song and a half on the pod > Jersey St. Helier > a five minute drive > a large vodka & tonic on the beach. All in three hours! And golly what a beach.........who needs the Caribbean?

And if this wasn't enough the sun shone and we gorged on crab & lobster and cooked on beach BBQ's. Utter heaven. I ignored it at the time - I was in the thick of sand castle building - but on Saturday afternoon the draft came through for the new Off the List website (minus the deposit invoice, hurrah!) which should be up n' running by the end of the month; hopefully with as little whip cracking as possible.

Bastardising the old

2009-08-07T16:38:00.005+01:00

Hollister Hovey's blog (http://hollisterhovey.blogspot.com/) has just flagged up the coolest iPhone case around - a home-made alligator skin cover - which reminds me of how many Victorian & Edwardian cigar cases one sees kicking about boot-sales & antiques markets; can these be bastardised????

It's not the greatest shot but you get the gist....apparently the guy who made it has also done a version in shagreen - that I'd love to see. Out with the needle and thread tonight!

Still in the dark.....

2009-08-07T10:12:00.006+01:00

....... as to what has been added to the coffers; all that returned to the house last night was a cake stand! Not an addition to the emporium but an apparently essential tool at an upcoming Hen - the house is to be transformed into a coop for a weekend of female revelry; I shalln't be seen for dust!

I had a sudden moment of clarity during the storms last night and put a face to a memory. Whilst at a wedding a couple of weeks ago in the basking sun (remember that bright, heat generating, carcinogenic thing in the sky?) we dropped into Port Isaac for lunch and discovered a gem of a shop there called Hooper & Shaw "An Emporium of wonderful things". www.hooperandshaw.com

Run by a couple of creative souls, they supplied us with the perfect 30th birthday present for the Boss' NBF (new best friend) - I've known her for years but have been entirely written out of earlier history - a 'Love me love my dog' screenprint in lipstick red with a perfect Dachshund in white.

Anyway, we had a long chat and all the while I was thinking 'I know these people' and even their names rang a bell.........to cut a long (no doubt boring) story short they used to live above a shop I worked in in Fulham by the name of RK Alliston. The ultimate gardening shop.

My visual memory - once again - triumphs over the part that recalls names!

Most importantly however, is how I can use their design skills to add a little 'je ne sais quoi' to Off the List. Answers on a postcard.

Brave New Additions.......

2009-08-06T16:21:00.004+01:00

.....are in the process of being purchased - without my guiding hand!!!! As I swelter in the office, 'the boss' is off in the Midlands stocking up; this is the benefit of having a boss that disappears for August's entirety. At 6am this morning instructions were given to text / email mobile phone images - not one has been received. Argh! Whilst fully trusting (ish) I just want to be in on the act, even if it means virtually!

What can one expect to appear in the shopping trolley? Yup, a granny wheeled one.

Tekkstyle

2009-08-06T16:12:00.002+01:00

There I was rambling on about the capabilities of my web designers when with a rumble of the tummy I potter off South of the river to gorge at the fantastic Captain Corelli's - delicious Italian (Roman) cafe - the alia e olio arrived at the very same time as aforementioned Tekkstyle alongside my brother-in-law. A North-Londoner seeing the brighter side of the city and one of its better eateries; huge bowl of pasta, a rather sickly tutti-frutti ice-cream (a first and last) and an espresso for eight quid! Oh! The sun shone too. A very suitable Thursday.

2009-08-06T10:09:00.002+01:00

I'm also keen to have a links page to other sites of interest - not the competition of course - to aid both their and our causes. One of the first shall be GG Print, the delightful duo who supplied our wedding invitations masterfully. They now do our thank you note cards too and I've great intentions to send more their way.

The jury is out on other suitable candidates and I'm quite sure that most of them will have no bearing on the Off the List brand itself, just sites and companies that 'flick my switch'!

New improved Off the List

2009-08-06T09:55:00.005+01:00

Last night the decision was taken to blow the budget and build a new website for Off the List. We have shed our puppy fat and are now aiming for the full orchestral range of bells & whistles - described like that it's not going to sound too good but should look superb. The wonders at Tekkstyle are going to build my equivalent of Father Christmas' sack.

From the end of August we should be able to take payments online, remind subscribers of all of the important birthdays for which presents are a must, send fortnightly fireworks displays of new arrivals to the site and do a hundred other things that I'll never understand.

2009-08-05T15:56:00.000+01:00

And a life-size terracotta Buff-Orpington is a fabulous thing - it nests under our hall table.

2009-08-05T15:55:00.000+01:00

Or a beautifully lacquered 'Vide poche' in the shape of a fish.

2009-08-05T15:53:00.000+01:00

An early Twentieth Century French Green Leather Dog Collar for one

Blogging On / Off the List

2009-08-05T15:17:00.001+01:00

Whilst an avid reader in the blogging world this is a first excursion into uploading - lets see how the RSI puts up with it - and promoting my website via mediums beyond word-of-mouth; though perhaps blogging is the natural progression of personal recommendations.

www.offthelist.co.uk is the result of years of voracious antique buying around the UK; no auction, dealership or junk shop (a favourite haunt) failed to keep a gem buried or kitsch ceramic unpurchased. Subsequently, the house began to bulge at its seems and my more formal selling outlets were never going to be suitable showrooms for the whimsy and delight of my ever expanding collection. The lady in my life, I discovered, began to dig into drawers and siphon off surfaces suitable trinkets for presents and through her unintended genius Off the List was born!

The name derives from the (oft frowned upon) decision to buy presents for Bride's & Groom's outside of their formal wedding list; the place where friends and family - those who really know the individuals - can free the reigns and give something that's unlikely to be forgotten and most importantly, the recipients will not forget who gave it to them!

What, you may cry, can we find in this treasure trove..........

Well