Forthcoming Attractions: Early October 2015

Here’s a selection of this week’s homewares buys – they have a very antique feel to them, it has to be said.

We’ll start with the small chair. It’s a 19th century child’s low-back Windsor dating from about 1820. It’s a little tired and dusty, but will clean and wax beautifully. A great little buy!

We’re still in the 19th century with these two pieces of kitchenalia. First, a Victorian bread board…

…this one has lovely carved decoration around the rim – leaves… or possibly feathers.

And then a lidded metal spice tin dating from the same period.

It has compartments for the different flavourings. It would have been things like nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and pepper in those days… but the world’s your oyster.

This old shop counter would make a wonderful kitchen piece itself. It has the original internal fittings which make fantastic spice drawers. The coin scoops for loose spices and the compartments for packets etc.

Just to prove we’ve not turned our back on the 1960s, we’ve got these two classic items from the period… an orange Herbert Terry Anglepoise lamp – and the Carltonware princess money box designed by Vivienne Brennan. Along with the small green stool (yes, you’ve guessed it – Victorian), they certainly add a splash of colour to the group.

As always, the items will be split between our web shop and antiques centre space. Drop us a line if you’ve got any questions about them.

Forthcoming Attractions: Mid-September 2015

Here’s a selection of recent vintage buys heading shopwards.

For starters, we have a classic bit of what is generally termed ‘vintage retro’ these days. These ‘Beefeater‘ steak plates scream 1960s/70s.

They were produced by English Ironstone Ltd in Staffordshire. Aren’t they fabulous? We’ve got some young bulls on nearby farmland – you won’t be surprised to hear that they’re not quite as colourful as these.

We’re staying in the same era with this fabric offcut.

Actually, the style is very similar – the same artist could have been responsible for both the plates and the textile!

This pair of items makes a nice little grouping – they would look perfect on a vintage, mid-century modern teak sideboard. We love the contrast of glazes on the vase – and the flash of orange of course. The stylised antelope is lovely. We come across similar wooden sculptures quite often, but this one stood out from the crowd. It’s particularly good quality in terms of material and skill of carving.

This fondue set is top quality for its type also – enamel pan with teak detailing, warmer and a set of six forks. It’s pretty much unused and a superb English mustard colour. Pop that on the sideboard too… ready for the retro dinner party.

More vibrant colour with this vintage lamp – our favourite Anglepoise for some time. We love the stepped base, shape of the shade and bold red colourway.

It’s a Herbert Terry original and would look great gracing any desk or worktop.

And finally, onto the poster that’s in the background of many of these photos. We’ve had it for a while, but it’s been rolled up in storage. We’ve just had it framed so we’re counting it as a new item! It’s a vintage poster advertising Danish Fortnight at the department store Neiman-Marcus in Dallas. The poster is gorgeous – and you can guarantee that most of those 1960s Danish homewares on sale were gorgeous too!

Forthcoming Attractions: mid June 2012

Here’s a selection of recent vintage homeware purchases heading for our shop.

We regularly come across these vintage aluminium colanders, but not often with groovy orange handles.

There are seven of these vintage metal containers. We think they’ve been repainted at some point – a long time ago and rather expertly it has to be said. The cream & dove grey colour combination is lovely.

Next we have this drinks flask produced by Thermos. So famous are this company for producing vacuum drinks flasks that most people actually call them Thermos flasks – in the same way people call vacuum cleaners ‘Hoovers’. This is a lovely example dating from the 1960s with a bold, graphic pattern in red & cream.

The clock dates from the same period. It was produced by another famous maker – this time Metamec. They produced this type of clock in many different colourways. They’re also well known for their sculptural starburst clocks.

This stainless steel tea strainer was made in Denmark. It’s neat & well designed – ideal if you’re a regular leaf tea drinker.

The Hornsea mug is one of a set celebrating the twelve months of the year. Each one features a couple occupied in typical activities for the month in question e.g. celebrating bonfire night in November, building snowmen in January, dodging rain showers in April and so on. This one’s for March and they’re being blown about in the wind.

The ashtray‘s also by Hornsea – but a much simpler, geometric repeating pattern this time.

We have little & large of the desk lamp world. Well, the larger lamp isn’t that big, it’s just that the smaller one is very dinky indeed. They both have a really good mid century modern look. The larger of the two was produced by Anglepoise, the smaller by Tensor.

This wooden shelf system is so 1950s…

…not only the shape with its interlocking squares, but also the packaging – and its name of course – the “Gaybox”… wonderful!

This corner unit also dates from the 50s – it would sit very nicely with blonde Ercol furniture. The bright yellow floor lamp is a much more recent product. It’s called the ‘Bobby’ lamp and is sold through Habitat. We bought a pair in a recent house clearance auction. We like the colour, styling and functionality – in fact, Adelle’s been using it all week as her task light of choice for sewing.

Finally, we have these salad servers in teak & stainless steel. These examples date from the 1960s, but are boxed & pristine. Great styling & quality materials – just a lovely piece of classic Danish design for everyday use.

All the items shown will be heading towards the website or antiques centre soon, but feel free to enquire about anything that particularly takes your fancy.

Another angle

Our last post featured an interesting ‘industrial design’ coffee pot / percolator. It’s still unidentified!

Here’s another great example of industrial design… bought at auction last week. Unlike the coffee pot, we know a lot about this item.

It’s a classic Anglepoise lamp designed by George Carwardine. This is the ‘1227’ model licensed to Herbert Terry & Sons – the ‘2-tiered base’ version produced from 1938 until 1969.

This is a fantastic early example with original paint finish, wiring and Bakelite switch. In superb condition and still fully working.

A design classic indeed – here’s a more detailed history from the Design Museum. and a newspaper article from 2009 about its reissue.

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Anglepoise

Forthcoming Attractions: Early October 2015

Forthcoming Attractions: Mid-September 2015

Forthcoming Attractions: mid June 2012

Another angle