Aluminum Bar Cart

I don't drink, but if I did, I'd mix all my drinks at this awesome-looking aluminum bar cart. Please let it be really thick and solid, the way they used to make aluminum tubing back in the day. A toast to Warren McArthur!

Lot 1121: ART DECO
Polished aluminum bar cart, est. $300-500, June 18 [ragoarts.com]
update: it sold for $671

Bed Frame Tall Bike

Want to have some fun? Search for 'bicycle pageant' on the Life/Google image archive.

Gio Ponti, Wall-Mounted Ply

What an awesome design. Did Gio Ponti ever make one of these? [I see he later made a wall-mounted bureau that appears to balance on one tiny, pointy foot.]

Is there any wall-mounted shelf or furniture unit that can't be improved by floating it on a slightly biomorphic sheet of beautifully grained plywood first?


From a series of architects' furniture sketches published in "Arredatori Contemporani," and collected at Mondo Blogo.


i heart italian drawings from the 40's [mondo-blogo]

Naomilingerie and Millennium General Assembly on Etsy

Millennium General Assembly

Naomilingerie

As browsers know, Etsy is an ocean of stuff that makes eBay feel comparatively puny. Of course, just like everything else in the world, the quality of the products varies widely. Two of my favorites are Millennium General Assembly and Naomilingerie.

Something that I value in carefully curated collections is the ability to look across items and be able to compare the similarities and differences. The dog license bracelet is a great collection that you can bring with you. And the old dog licenses are hard to find. Over my years of garage saling, I have come across only two.

Naomilingerie is so charming, so Japanese and so clearly lovingly made. Truly, the wonder of the internet is being able to get something like this from an individual on the other side of the world.

Support microbusiness!

Naomilingerie and Millennium General Assembly

New Shackitecture from Jeffrey Broadhurst

Here at D+R, we are fans of shackitecture. Modest buildings with grand ambitions. From this rich vein, my favorite is Jeffrey Broadhurst's Shack at Hinkle Farm. It is a mere 140 square feet, has no insulation and you can see light through the cracks in the walls, but it really feels like it captures a moment. What do you want, what do you need and how are we going to get by in this crazy bing-bong world.

Elise points us to Broadhurst's new project, the prefab The Crib. For me, for my personal tastes, I still prefer the minimal Hinkle Farm shackitecture for capturing an aesthetic ideal but The Crib resolves many practical issues like insulation, efficient lighting and bathroom facilities.

Jeffrey Broadhurst's Crib (Thanks, Elise!)

Gitterkorb Basket, Circa 1905

Josef Hoffman, sterling silver and ivory

According to Google translate, gitterkorb means lattice basket, so the description is a bit redundant when translated as lattice basket basket. Stunning piece of work from 1905 that reminds me of the Chrysler Building.

Gitterkorb at Sotheby's, auction estimate $20,000-$30,000

Flying Carpets, By Andreas Slominski

Throughout 1994, each bimonthly issue of Sky Lines, Austrian Airlines' in-flight magazine, included a new two-page spread by German artist Andreas Slominski.

Part of the Museum In Progress project, Slominski photographed Oriental rugs from the large collection at the Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna. "'The "Flying Carpets' could be placed on the aircraft folding tables and used for putting things on such as a glass, a plate, a postcard or a (Camel) cigarette."

Improbable as it seems, the project was not sponsored by Camel.

Museum in Progress | Flying Carpets, 1994 [mip.at]

The World's Largest Airship.

Yes, I know it's Kevlar, and can go 80 mph. But you can't seriously look at NASA's new Bullet 580 rolling around in that rinkydink Alabama coliseum like a worm in a Mexican jumping bean and tell me that ours is a nation of eternal progress and innovation.



Hmm? Oh, nothing, just a few blimps and things we decided to inflate inside Hangar One here at Lakehurst, New Jersey, back in '41. Ol' George Strock shot a bunch of 'em for LIFE.

Neutra Chairs

Over at greg.org, our famed guest blogger and master architectural sleuth Greg Allen found a couple of Neutra chairs in a Utah garage. His whole account is fascinating. We always dream of seeing an endangered animal in it's natural environment.

Beckstrand Lodge at greg.org

Split-System Air Conditioning in War Zone

Follow the link for a much larger photograph of this amazing example of a fortified, sandbagged plywood shackitecture hut that is climate controlled with a split-system air conditioning unit. Amazing.

Afghanistan Shackitecture at The Big Picture

Carolina Biological Supply Praying Mantis Care Sheet

What a wonderful world this is. Open your email and there is a note inviting you to claim a free praying mantis instruction guide from Carolina Biological Supply. One day, you are Joe Average Nobody, the next day you are a praying mantis researcher. Just like that.

Praying Mantis Care Sheet

Maker Faire 2010

This weekend! I will be there, will you? Please say hello if you see me! In addition to wandering around I will be MCing the Center Stage.

Who else is going? D+R's own Mark Frauenfelder! D+R guest Garth Johnson and, I think, D+R guest Kevin Kidney will also be making the scene. And I wouldn't be surprised to see guest blogger Todd Lappin.

I Don't Think This Is A Richard Neutra Table, But

I just don't know. It's at a modest, little Richard Neutra house I discovered, which has, to my knowledge, never been documented or published. [Yes, I have the giant, wood-covered Taschen catalogue of Neutra's complete works, and no, the photos in that book are of a completely different house. Just sayin'.]

Many stuff-loving friends have declared me to be crazy for writing about this place without having emptied it out into my truck first. But first off, the current owner is a buyer, an accumulator, not a seller. Second, honestly, the house is cool, but no must-have masterpiece. And finally, the most fascinating/unusual thing about it to me is that it's almost entirely as it was built.

And at the end of the day, I'd rather be the guy who brings the table in from the rain than the guy who rips and flips all the built-ins.

Garage Sale Report - May 15, 2010

I have always coveted these figural Le Creuset casseroles. Whenever I am in Whole Foods, I linger over the Le Creuset display as their enamelware is so attractive and substantial. I can't figure out what I would cook in this small, steep sided pot but, for $5, it is a mystery I will solve. A cassoulet? Perhaps. Though it may have to wait until the summer has passed.

UPDATE: Certainly, the prices at garage sales are astonishing. We are living in times of unprecedented abundance. Now that I have cleaned my new la fonte emaillee oven, I feel I do need to make mention of condition. It is flawless, never used, with original label and a Le Creuset owner's manual inside. But, again, I am forced to mention, despite the NOS condition, it was terrifically greasy-dirty. Do people live as savages? Some do.

Sir Richard's Portable Sundial

Merry Maker Sir Richard posted this sketch for a portable sundial he's working on. The gradations would be site-specific, but I would imagine they'd be latitude-specific. So while your New York sundial necklace would be off in Quebec, your I-70 sundial would work fine all the way across the country. As long as you take the time zones and daylight savings into account, of course.

Portable Pillar Sundial [sir richard's tool kit]

Rapha Cycle Club

From Rapha, the premier high-style cycling outfitter:

On the 8th May Rapha Cycle Club will open in London. A combination of gallery, shop and café, the Cycle Club is a meeting place and hub for road riders. Unlike most ‘pop up’ stores, the Rapha Cycle Club will be more than just a retail space. With live screenings of road races and a full calendar of exhibitions and events, the Rapha Cycle Club will be a home for the sport and culture of road racing. This is the ultimate Rapha experience.

An extensive range of Rapha products including a limited edition collection of Cycle Club items, as well as food and drink. Various screenings and exhibitions will take place including every stage of the Giro and the Tour, and exhibitions celebrating Fausto Coppi and the centenary of the Col du Tourmalet.

Rapha Cycle Club launches

Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler

Vladimir Tepes Dracula heartlessly impaled thousands; this is partly the reason he's considered to be the most infamous vampire in all of history. But be assured... during the making of the above video, celebrating the notorious exploits of Vlad, no one was actually impaled or harmed.

Extrafancy

British Campaign Furniture

Though published in 2001 with a cover price of $45, the OOP British Campaign Furniture sells for $275 and up on Amazon. I wish I knew about it when it came out. Elegance under canvas, indeed.

British Campaign Furniture

Calder's French Theatre Friend's Mobile

In 1947 Jean Vilar founded the Avignon Festival, which would become one of the world’s biggest festivals. In 1951 he was appointed head of the Théâtre National Populaire, where he strove to appeal to a broad-based public, frequently commissioning artists like Léon Gischia, Mario Prassinos and Alfred Manessier to design sets and costumes. In 1952 he staged Henri Pichette’s anti-nuclear play Nucléa, starring Gérard Philipe and Jeanne Moreau. Vilar asked Calder – whose work was well suited to his modernist approach – to design the scenery. Calder’s theatre décor comprised a giant stabile and four mobiles. The play met scant success, but confirmed Vilar’s determination to stage drama prepared to deal with current events.

Vilar and Calder became close friends. One morning in 1952, Calder knocked on the door of Vilar’s modest Paris apartment. Vilar’s wife Andrée opened the door and found herself face-to-face with the giant – who smilingly told her, in his ogre’s voice with its American accent, ‘I’m bringin’ ya a little mobile.’ He handed her a flimsy, badly tied-up bundle wrapped in newspaper, then went down on all fours in the lounge to assemble his magnificent mobile dedicated to Vilar. It would follow the family wherever they lived.

Until this month, when it gets sold by Artcurial in Paris. It's on view this week at Swann in New York.

Wait, did that really say "anti-nuclear play"?

31 May 2010, Lot 65: Pour Vilar, 1952, Alexander Calder, est. 500-700,000 euros [artcurial.com]

Zen Diet

The perfect balance of grits and beans.

Gastric Bypass Policy

The motto of the Martin family's entire Shady Maple operation, from the grocery store to their thrice-expanded, 1,200-seat, Pennsylvania Dutch Smorgasbord, is "Give the customer quality food and service and you will have a customer for life."

And since gastric bypass surgery follows a lifetime of Smorgasbord-going as surely as Ordnung follows Rumspringa, the Martins have developed an appropriate policy that recognizes their customers' temporary change in eating volume.

If you go, do try the sausage, smoked in-house, also the eclair pudding and egg custard.

Shady Maple Smorgasbord, East Earl, PA - Closed Sunday