Kienholz TV

NANCY REDDIN KIENHOLZ (B. 1943)
EDWARD KIENHOLZ
The Billionaire Deluxe (G. 748)
metal multiple with Fresnel lens system, light bulb, and solid state electronic second counter, 1977, signed 'KEINHOLZ', numbered 13/56 (there were also 12 artist's copies), published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, with their copyright stamp, substantial wear and oxidation to the metal, otherwise in good condition
Overall: 14 x 9½ x 10 in. (356 x 241 x 254 mm.)

Though double the auction estimate, this feels cheap even if it was an edition of 56. Granted, rich for my garage sale budget, but pretty reasonable in the grand sense. Gemini G.E.L. is still fighting, still knocking 'em dead on Melrose.

The Billionaire Deluxe at Christie's, realized price $3,750

Gemini G.E.L.

Ariel 52 Homemade Wooden Car

This beautiful-but-odd car was apparently handmade in 1959, by a California boatbuilder following blueprints published in Modern Mechanix. It's registered as an Ariel, thanks to the 1952 Ariel square four motor, but it has a little bit of period-correct everything, from Citroen suspension to Cadillac lamps.

By waiting two years to post this, the price has already come down $5,000.

2010: A SOLID WOOD CAR!! RARE ARIEL SQUARE FOUR ENGINE! A ROLLING PIECE OF ART THAT WILL SURELY COMPLETE ANY COLLECTION!!, now $24,900! [stlouiscarmuseum.com]
2008: eBay find of the day: 1952 Ariel Square Four Wooden Racer, $30,000 [autoblog]

Coco's Want List

Seeking classic road bikes

Abecrombie and Fitch HST Jacket

Over at Coco's Variety, I updated our epic want list to answer frequently asked questions about what I buy. Of course, the most valuable item that I will come across will be an extraordinary treasure that I can't describe as I don't know what it is yet.

Coco's Want List

Embroidered Duvet Project

Stitched by Giddy99/Pattern from Sublime Stitching

Stitched by Giddy99/Pattern from Badbird

Flickr user Giddy99 has embarked on an epic crazy quilt-style embroidery project. Beautiful, beautiful work. What an artifact this is going to be... Generational.

The Duvet Project via Sublime Stitching

Milwaukee 8975-6 Heat Gun

I recently purchased a heat gun at a garage sale and it is my new favorite tool as it is equally suited for removing old decals and defrosting freezers. For the French Canadians, the box reads pistolet chauffant which sounds like more fun than being a mere heat gun.

Milwaukee 8975-6 11.6 Amp 570/1000-Degree Fahrenheit Dual Temperature Heat Gun

Machine Project House Plant Jungle at Hammer

From the Department of Wonderful, Absurd, Beautiful, Inspired Projects, our friends at Machine Project are staging a vacation that is too terrific for people. Imagine spending an entire month in a world class art museum, being sung to and having focused positive energy directed onto you. Well, you can't. But! Your houseplants can enjoy such a rich cultural experience.

On Saturday, bring a houseplant to the Hammer Museum, have your portrait taken with your green friend and return a month later to retrieve your newly enlightened plant. Do not be surprised to learn that your plant has become 'too good' for you during such adventure.

Machine Project x Hammer Museum x You x Your Houseplants

Sonsbeek Pavilion by Gerrit Rietveld

Did you know it's Rietveldjaar? Or that jaar is Dutch for "seven months"?

Anyway, Gerrit Rietveld designed four exhibition buildings, including a 1954 sculpture pavilion for Sonsbeek, which was recreated ten years later on a site the designer chose in the sculpture garden of the Kröller Müller Museum in Otterlo. It's rather beautiful, I think. Here are some more photos.

Custom Cars of the 1960's and 1970's

Have you been lying awake wondering if Barris had a closet stuffed full of patches in his North Hollywood showroom? Andy, our man in Delaware, tips us to George Barris' evergreen hucksterism as he is peddling a variety of merchandise online - none more compelling than the vintage embroidered patches. Need an embroidered patch for your Levi's with the crotch hole blowout? Need a name for your garage band? Embroidered Crotch Hole Blowout.


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When I was a kid, I would press my nose against Barris' storefront glass to ogle the Batmobile. Thirty years later, I still do.





Perhaps inspired by this Barris treasure trove, Coop, our man downtown, has scanned his collection of custom car postcards.

Otto Piene Rainbow Cube

Ohhhh! Six-sided rainbow lamp! It goes all the way! It's so bright and vivid!

Otto Piene; Ernst Fuchs. Light sculpture, 1975. H. 48.5 cm; 48.5 x 48.5 cm. Made by Rosenthal, Selb. Rainbow coloured plastic. Marked: Maker's and artists' marks, 29/ 999. Est. EUR600-900, sold for EUR600 in 2006. [quittenbaum.de via liveauctioneers]
Artists | Otto Piene: "...and the light objects »Lichtkubus« and »Lichtstele« (999 pieces each)" [rosenthalusa.com]

Dykema Rubber Bands

I'm sitting here for a week, wondering how it's possible that I've dodged every entertaining and/or enlightening &c. object. Then I realize I just bought a pound of giant rubber bands from the oldest rubber band company in America, Dykema Rubber Band.

They have a million and one uses, I'm sure, but I needed bookends for an unexpectedly well-crafted steel shelf I purchased on a whim at Ikea. The Dacke shelving unit is Jon Karlsson's pared down interpretation of industrial/commercial shelving, and unusually sturdy and fine. It'd be a fair price at $299, but much more resistible than $74. I bought as many as could fit through my sunroof, so as not to end up with mismatched shelving, because I suspect they are not long for this Swedish retailer's world.

Anyway, Tunis J. Dykema, the well-named founder of Dykema Rubber Band and the grandfather of the current owners, apparently invented the eye dropper in 1931, 1932, or 1935.

Nike Mayfly

The Nike Mayfly is an ultra-lightweight running shoe constructed for a single race. It is designed for a mere 100 kilometers of use. I recognize the questions posed by a single use shoe. However, I am a total sucker for extremely specialized tools.

The digital display for recording the date of the special occasion is a very nice touch.

Nike Mayflys (via Highsnobiety)

Chocolate Pentagon

It's funny, the rare things that become invisible to us through familiarity.

If the only Costco you ever visited was in Washington DC, for example, you might see Pentagons molded out of Belgian chocolate and think nothing of it.

Even when you read that this is also Richard Perle's Costco, and you wonder if such a chocolate Pentagon was present at the inception of the Iraq War. [It's also available in milk and white chocolates.]

New Work from Kevin and Jody

If you haven't checked in at Miehana in a while, you should go take a look. Jody Daily and D+R Guest Blogger Kevin Kidney have been killing it lately. Super passionate, super talented.

Kevin Kidney's Blog Miehana

Update: Pallet Outdoor Room Shackitecture

Everybody is asking... how is the pallet shackitecture outdoor room? Swell. As you can see, I let the basil go to flower. And I need to plant that thyme. The pansies there in the back don't look great, but they are still growing.

It is going so well that today I gave it a designer makeover.






Free stencil is available to the first individual to claim it at Coco's Variety.

We love you, Muiccia!

Midwest Garage Sale Tent

D+R reader Dave found this tent at a garage sale. Handsome as can be. Reminds me of a space alien bug. Know more about it? Drop us a note as Dave is curious.

UPDATE: Anon D+R reader points us to the robust Eureka! wikipedia entry. Thanks!

Kintsugi Repaired Vase

Not a terrific kintsugi repair, but examples come up so infrequently on eBay that I thought it was worth mentioning. Not familiar with kintsugi? A terrific aesthetic ideal and, broadly, a world view. Stuff breaks and repairs are made. It is never again a perfect artifact. But, rather than try to hide the flaws, the repairs are 'joined in gold.' The history of the object - including the day it fell off the shelf - is maintained. Not perfect, not broken, but a fascinating object in a third state.


Ming Baluster Celadon Vase on eBay

Musta Been A Horse

Maybe keeping the baseball bat with the horseshoes attached wasn't such a smart move, 1930 Horseshoe Murderer.

An Exclusive Fascinating Photo of the Crime Museum of the Police College, via Tom Sutpen.
A 1994 mention of the horseshoe bat in the NY Times

Garage Sale Report: July 10, 2010

Despite a nasty rattle can paint job, these JBL 4311-A Control Monitors were the find of the day. I pulled a purely low-end-of-the-mid-range Kenwood receiver off the shelf and fired them up. They sound amazing. I am not a "golden ear" but they sound precise and bright to me. Wonderfully, the all paper cone drivers of this era pre-date the miserable foam surrounds that are always rotted out on newer speakers. They work perfectly.

I have been listening to this all day. Really conveys a seriousness here at the shop. The sort of professional atmosphere in which sonatas are required for real work.

Not sure what I am going to do with them as I already have about 4 pairs of speakers. That said, not sure why I had the Kenwood receiver either.

I figure the Presence and Brilliance knobs are aspirational. I set them at 7, as I don't want to appear greedy.

Pomona Tile Brochure

(click for big)

As D+R reader Scott was telling us before, Pomona Tile did colabs with a bunch of famous designers of the time. He sent us a scan of a pre-George Nelson brochure including the work Saul Bass. This is sort of tile week on D+R. Thanks, Scott!

I wish I had this book.

Crêpière Bretonne

All this talk of Le Creuset got me hungry for crêpes, so I finally pulled down the massive cast iron crêpe pan I'd bought a few years ago for--well, it was no garage sale score, but it did seem like a phenomenally low sale price.

Googling around for the proper model info, it turns out to be a 32cm-diameter Crêpière bretonne, which sounds authentic, since crêpes apparently originated in Brittany.

I marveled at how, even though there's no lip on the pan, surface tension miraculously kept the batter from spilling over the edge. Until the batter spilled over the edge and all over my stove.

BTW, that little spreader is called a rateau [rake] online, but on the box, it's a "'T' à Crêpe." Love that.

Szchaun Peppers of San Gabriel

Ate at Chung King today. The fellow preparing these chiles for drying was wearing rubber gloves and a respirator. Eagle-eyed readers will note from the shadow that I seem to have adopted a pinkie extended photo taking style. That is an affectation that I did not know about.

Chung King on Garfield

Garage Sale Report: June

As I have been garage saling for almost 20 years, the conversation will often turn to saling in casual conversation. Generally, people lament that they are not able to find anything good. My only response can be, "Maybe you are doing it wrong."

All of the following items have been found at garage sales or thrift stores within the last month.

See things whole, see the individual components
Buy a crap bike for a good saddle.








Look deep
This is the most difficult skill to build. For me, it is still very challenging to look at a garage sale of 1000's of items and be able to pick out the exceptional. It is very difficult and, admittedly, very lucky, to be able to see a slim cardboard box and realize it is something special. Beyond the issue of visual noise, there is the question of expectation. An exquisite 1990 Sam Francis exhibition catalog from a Ginza gallery show? You would never find it if you were looking for it.


Scale
Is it a tiny Le Creuset or a giant Duval? Both.




Buy local
I would have bought this car club plaque no matter the city of origin. But, I do give great preference to items identified as originating from my beloved Los Angeles.

This came from a thrift store. Not a non-profit thrift store, but a privately held junk shop where the proprietor buys things for a $1 and sells them for $2. Though there can exceptions, I think non-profit thrift stores are bullshit. They are over-shopped, stuff is overpriced and the savvy workers pick the best stuff before it hits the floor. Comparatively, if you build a relationship with junk store owners, they will learn your preferences and hold stuff for you. Knowing your taste and that you are reliable, they will buy stuff they would not normally purchase since they are buying it as your proxy.

Learn quality
Not brand, but manufacture and finish. It applies across everything unilaterally.


Don't be a slave to quality
Don't become such a snob that you don't buy tourist crap from Mexico. Common, cheap, but look at the eyes.

Buy what can be, not what is
This little fella had no eyes and looked sorta crappy. My friend Mai picked perfect button eyes from her collection and sewed them on for me. As result, Buster is disarmingly charming. Thanks, Mai!

Brillo Box (1961) By James Harvey

James Harvey was an abstract expressionist painter in New York City whose dayjob was designing product packaging. In 1961, he redesigned a case of Brillo Pads, for example. That was right about the time the market for AbEx evaporated in the sudden heat of Pop Art.

For his first sculpture show in 1964, Andy Warhol, who supported his early art career by working as a commercial artist, had about a hundred plywood boxes made, and painted, and silkscreened, to look like Harvey's design. Harvey saw the show. Thought it was a joke.

The art historian Irving Sandler suggested Harvey set up shop at his own gallery and sell signed Brillo boxes for ten cents. The only one he ever signed, however, was Sandler's, above. Harvey died in 1965.

Shadow Boxer, by James Gaddy, 2007 [printmag.com]

Paul Smith x Rapha Cycling Gloves

Don't tell bikesnobnyc, but I am completely and totally suckered in by these gloves. What can I do? I love them! Well, not enough to part with the $245 required to buy them but it will certainly affect my affection for my $9 gloves from China.

Paul Smith x Rapha Gloves