Our most recent find

The other day we drove from Falmouth Ma to Greenwich Rhode Island for a sale that had 2 Robsjohn Gibbings mid-century pieces. One was a magazine table and the other was a round coffee table. Both were from 1951, both were bleached walnut and handsome.

There were probably over 100 people there. We were all sizing each other up and second guessing what we were interested in buying. Generally when I see people who are 60 years old and older, and that seems to be the current majority at most of these sales, I know that typically they are buying the “small stuff” to resell at flea markets. Or they are buying sterling silver or coins. They are not buying mid-century modern. They grew up with it and it has become invisible and uninteresting to them. On the other hand when I see 30-somethings and up to 50 plus, I become a little anxious. Quite a few of them like what we like and often times they will over pay for the items that interest them.
However, with this particular group of middle aged suburbanites didn’t know what they were looking at or John made nasty faces at them to keep them away. It was probably John making faces at them. Anyway we bought the two Gibbings pieces and 4 Thonet Bent Plywood Chairs and a totally cool mid-century plant stand with big brass knobs and an ebony finish.
Imagine, all these nice things were carefully thought out, designed by creative thinkers and made available for everyone.
I can’t wait to get back out there and hunt down more of Americas modern yesterdays.

Business and personal lives together

Having this business has changed our lives and how we interact with each other. As you all know by now my boyfriend John, Eli our dog and me do the traveling for our business together. We share so much time with each other; from long driving hours, to eating on the road to sharing our seat with the boy (Eli), to doing things in the house, with the furniture, online, etc. Eli and I have gotten closer, he is so used to me being in the same seat as he is that he falls asleep on my lap or uses me as a pillow/ cushion most of the time (even when we are not in the car).
Our crazy business schedule has forced us to do things like getting up in the middle of the night to be somewhere else by the time the sun rises, to come back home when the sun light is starting to hit the roof of our home, to eat just nuts and chips instead of meals, to make up songs about us going on a road trip just to break up the long hours. Sometimes sitting in heavy traffic breaks up the road time. We’ll look at the other people entertaining themselves while they sit in the traffic stew. Like in that picture of 495: we were supposed to go home and do some cleaning and prepare the things for the next day for SOWA but noooo, we were stuck there for almost an hour and a half and by the time we came back we were so exhausted we didn’t do anything.
When we go on road trips there is a certain excitement in the air, often I catch myself thinking about what would be good for our next trip, how to make it more comfortable, what to eat so we don’t end up at a fast food joint. Or what can we see at the towns and villages so it’s not too much business and more like a mini-vacation.
To be honest it feels like a mini-vacation a great percentage of the time. I get to day dream that we are going to get all the stuff we have planned and then some. And it helps that we thoroughly enjoy each others company. Which makes it easy for us to share our business and personal lives together. And yes that includes Eli our dog.

This is our chance!

John and I are always talking about Mid Century Modern; and how everything from the period seemed to be upbeat and new. I often say that my favorite decades were the 1950’s and -60’s. I just love the way everything was, for starters in the 50’s the economy was good, only one person had to work for a family and you could live comfortably, technology was progressing and giving luxuries to everybody, the fashion was amazing and the people were still able to trust others, there was also a certain innocence that I especially love.
In the 60’s everything continued to be new. Art, fashion and music continued to be innovative. Boundaries on all fronts were stretched and tested including the way government was run. It was a time to dream big, accept yourself and be whoever you wanted to be!
So what happened? It seems that as we moved into the post Vietnam War era we encountered gas lines, inflation, Watergate and record breaking interest rates. Along with these rough spots in our day to day lives we were spoon fed, or was it shoved down our throats, what to listen to, what to wear and in general told what was and wasn’t good for us. The era of the lemming was born and it persists to this day.
However, through the short lived trends in art, fashion and music and our lemming attitudes the qualities of the 50’s and 60’s still stand firm, a bit tarnished and dusty but still standing firm.
I would like to believe that as we come out of this horrible recession that we might return to, in part, the easier life style of the 50’ and 60’s, I firmly believe that this is our chance, this is the perfect time and we need to take advantage of it. Wouldn’t it be nice if your money had real value. And the people and things that you surround yourself with had quality and value too. I bet new artists and designers would be born from this improved age and they would create great design and quality products for everyone one like they did in previous decades.