Posts

Pacific Iron Products / New York Times

Image
  Before the holidays I received an email from Tom Delavan, the design and interiors director of the New York Times T Magazine. One of his recurring columns is called Style Detective. Readers submit a design mystery and Tom solves it.  He was asking about a Pacific Iron chair. Specifically, he wanted to know where one could get the Milo Baughman chair seen in the photo above. He didn't give me too much background, send me the photo, or even mention exactly why he was asking — other than it was related to his column. After reading  the article , I found out it was related to a 1952 Julius Shulman photo of the Robson & Helen Chambers Residence in Palm Springs. It was Robson's own house. The photo is after Chambers enclosed the dining patio. Chambers went to USC School of Architecture and was working in the Albert Frey and John Porter Clark office at the time, but this was a solo project.  Photo: New York Times According to the article, Tom contacted Alexandra Cunni...
Read more

Weekend / Stuff

Image
The year is starting out slow on the picking front.  I did get a good Josef Albers book Krenit
Read more

Natzler / Auction / House

Image
  The Private Collection of Gertrud & Otto Natzler at Rago and LAMA  This auction has some insane pots. It looks like the Natzlers were holding back some of the best examples.  Orange-red crater glaze I'm not usually a fan of these crystal formation glazes. They are a little flashy for me. However, paired with this dark blue, it works. Otto was was such a glaze master.  The house and studio where Gertud and Otto made all the pots is also for sale.   Gertrud died in 1971.  Otto later married photographer Gail Reynolds. Otto died in 2007 and Gail passed last year.  All contemporary real estate photos: Cameron Carothers This what the house looked like early on. After Gertrud passed, Otto and Gail expanded the house and gave it that Austrian chalet look. There were thousands of pieces of ceramics in the house. The real estate listing says "... it has been taken out by an art dealer, and they are now in storage." However, there are some Natzlers st...
Read more

JB Blunk / Thousand Oaks Library

Image
Alpha + 2 (1984) by JB Blunk (1926–2002) Last weekend I made a delivery up to Thousand Oaks after a disappointing shopping trip to the Rose Bowl flea market. It was my first time in the city so I decided to visit Alpha + 2. The Thousand Oaks Grant R Brimhall Library (formerly Canejo) is home to the monumental three piece redwood sculpture by Blunk. The work was commissioned in the late 1970s as part of the original construction of the library. It was commissioned and funded by the the Thousand Oaks Art Commission.  The sculpture was selected based on a scale model that Blunk executed in clay. It was controversial at the time. There was a contingency who didn't think it was worth the $35,000 price tag when there was still a need to purchase more books. The City Council approved the funding 4 to 1. The sculpture was originally going to be placed in the children's section and was meant to be an "object of play."  Ultimately it would be placed in the foyer next to the mai...
Read more