NEW INVENTORY quick peek!

San Francisco Magazine: March 2011

Thank you SAN FRANCISCO Magazine for your support!

Here's the article in the MARCH edition.

Beauty in Violence

Last weekend, while househunting with my wife, I came across this very unusual marking in the sidewalk outside a home on the market.

At first I thought someone had imprinted a design into the pavement, but on closer look- the darkness was glass: molten glass.

I thought:  lighting strike?

And after a few seconds of tapping away on my iphone: YUP- that's what lightning striking pavement looks like.

A gorgeous fractal network of black fused silica in a light colored concrete substrate- beauty in nature, even if created by extreme violence.

We didn't put in an offer on the house.

19th Century Flowers

in a time without internet...to study and appreciate the beauty & anatomy of plants was a bit more difficult.  The Germans did a great job with botanical studies in papier-mache, and the Blaschka's did an even more impressive job in glass....

PAPIER MACHE

GLASS

Mmmmmm...Pocket Tools

I cannot walk by a hardware store without popping in and finding something I want (mind you, not NEED, just WANT)....you never know when you'll need a widget or something!

In other world, I'm a tool junkie...

I invite you to the little known world of Mini Pocket Tools.

Pocket tools of any merit are typically hand made- one exception being the PIRAHNA .

But for those wanting a bit more of a personal touch and much better design, take a look at the following 2 makers:

Peter Atwood

Joshua Rice

Good Design

Good Design makes me happy.

Whatever it is, an object as decoration, or simply a functional object that happens to be good design- it doesn't even need to cost much, or cost anything for that matter.

Frankly, the best design comes from nature -but I won't get into a long discussion on biomimicry and the reasons nature chose a particular design over another- all is for function, but how can you not appreciate the design?......

Anyways, I ramble....tooling around Liveauctioneers, I came across a few things I would love to drop some $$$$ on, but probably won't- so have at it!

Antique Italian print

Penguin by Beniamino Bufano

Bird by Bufano

Tiffany & Co Tureen

and let's put them all on this for display....LOOOOOVE this table by Borsani (at auction at RAGO):

5 Favorites on eBay right now!

Yes, of course I find things on eBay...no hidden secret!

Here are 5 of my favorite items currently at auction

1)  Item 320642397554 : 

MID-CENTURY VIDAL LARIN ERA MODERNIST NECKLACE PENDANT

2)  Item 160519793224 : Venini mask

3) 

180611604063 : 

RARE Abraham Palatnik Pal Lucite Op Art Sculpture Bird

4) 

260721614839: 

ARREDOLUCE 1950s 9 arms brass chandelier SIGNED

5) 

350409583895: Fulper matte GREEN vase

Life After Fontana Arte: Prof. Erwin Walter Burger

Those interested in Italian Mid Century Design in glass undoubtably think of Fontana Arte.

The company as a whole aside, I'd like to introduce you to one of their most important, but relatively unknown, artisans.

SCULPTED HEAD

In 1928, after years working for important glass firms in his native country, German-born Erwin Walter Burger settled in Italy.  Already a master engraver, he worked for several years for the Muranese firm of  Cappellin & C- then moving to Milan to become chief engraver for the newly established firm Fontana Arte (the Gio Ponti-founded artistic wing of Luigi Fontana's plate glass company Luigi Fontana & C.).

Burger was responsible for the creating the designs thought up by Pietro Chiesa (whose own company had merged with Fontana Arte in 1933) & Giacomo Manzu, though also from the beginning designed his own works (though these were never marked as his own design).  When Pietro Chiesa left Fontana Arte in 1945, Burger left to found his own company: Laboratorio Erwin Burger.

Burger worked with a small team of artisans producing a wide range of their own glass works, but also collaborated with other firms.  In 1957 Burger he took on his 20-year old son Willi (a painter) as co-designer.

Prof. Burger died in 1982.  Always the versatile artist, his son Willi is now world-renown classical harmonica musician.

The most importants works of Burger fall into two camps:  sculptures & engraved panels.

AVAILABLE works by Burger at Amarcord Fine Decorative Arts

CHARGER

 CENTERPIECE

 SELECTED WORKS BY BURGER

REVERSE PAINTED PANELS

REVERSE PAINTED CENTERPIECE

WHEEL ENGRAVED & ETCHED GLASS DOORS

ACID ETCHED GLASS PANELS

DOOR HANDLES

WHEEL CARVED WALL PANEL

Two great books for your Library

Feeling gifty this holiday season?

If you're into flowers....and design, here's a couple books to pick up.

A recent release:

Preston Bailey's Celebrations

And and old favorite of mine (if you can find a copy)..by Warwick Orme of Australia, titled Floranova.

Aluminum: From Riches to Rags

Did you know in the late 19th Century Aluminum was more valuable than gold?  And it was only really discovered in 1825?   You can even find early Victorian jewelry with aluminum & gold used together.

Of course, as time went on (and more discoveries of deposits)- it was then as valuable as silver, then...not a long time after that, as valuable as...aluminum.

And though Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth crust, you'll never find it a a pure element-(the image is not a chunk of natural aluminum, rather it is an alloyed by-product from a smelting plant)- the metal is too reactive, but it is found in bauxite and hundreds of other minerals and ores- which are mined & smelted.

What makes aluminum interesting is that when exposed to air it forms a thin surface layer of aluminum oxide (you know- the white stuff that forms when you wash your aluminum pots)...

The forming of that layer made aluminum impossible to weld (until later alloys allowed for that)....but that didn't stop people from riveting aluminum:

You'll notice Warren McArthur's works from the 40's & 50's have those lovely decorative rings- which held the tubes together without having to worry about welding:

The aluminum oxide layer allows the metal to be COLORED (like titanium).....which is called anodizing....not painted, actually stained through an electrical process.

I could go on about this now lowly metal.....but I won't.

Respect aluminum- it's not as valuable as it once was....but it's a worker.  Try living without it.

Pietra Dura & the Good Old Days

These days there is always an easier & quicker way to do things- technology has advanced and the 'old ways' of hand crafting have been forgotten in many arts.

One such art is the hand-made 'Pietra Dura' (i.e, stone marquetry) panels created from the 16th Century and on in Italy (Rome initially, then perfected in Florence thanks to the Medici family....then ultimately working its way to Agra in India).  These days the art of Pietra Dura continues, but is limited to just a few producers due to the cheaper water-jet cut CAD-designed pieces produced by any marble shop.   This saddens me.

Let's look back...

This amazing piece was done the 'old way'.

1) The  visible marble is actually about 3mm thick- these were cut from the slabs using rudimentary cutting wheels

2) the design was drawn out on the main sheet of marble (typically black, but also white, etc...), then the design cut out (using hand held wires coated repeatedly with abrasive powders...laborious and slow work)

3) colored stones of the same dimension were then cut to replace the voids- cutting the edges at a slight angle so the face of the colored stone was flush with the front but could not fall through.

4) when the colored stones were all in, plaster was pasted thinly on the back to set the design- then the whole slab backed with slate.

table top

trompe l'oeil table top

These days even the hand-made pieces by Ugolini Firenze use mechanical cutters & shapers....so nobody does it the hard way anymore.

The last 'atelier' that made pietra duras in the true sense was Montici Marbles- the small shop created by Richard Allman Blow in the 1940's.

It took a fabulously wealthy American (from a prominent family) to invest his own fortune buy a house in Santa Margherita a Montici (in Florence) and revive this art by hiring the best people still left in Florence still capable, including the head of the Optificio delle Pietre Dure (the institute that housed a museum and restoration center for this art).  He even bought surplus marble stock from the Medici family inventory that had been used centuries earlier to repair parts of the Medici Chapel.

Mr. Blow would sketch the designs- usually Modernist designs, not traditional...and his skilled work force (just several people) would do the work.  His shop produced fewer than 1500 works, and ended in 1992 with his death.  Here is what he achieved.

'Hand'- available for sale