When I emailed my editor to determine the subject of this month’s Hunters and Gatherers column she emailed back, “vintage outdoor furniture, including wicker.”  Or that is what I read.  What it really said was, “vintage outdoor furniture, specifically wicker and rattan.”  Sadly, by the time I went back to the email to clarify I had done a good bit of research on iron furniture and was full on obsessed about these chairs with spring steel seats.

I like things, but there are a couple of bloggers who know things.  Really know things.  So I emailed Aesthete’s Lament and House of Beauty and Culture.  HoBaC remembered reading something about their design, but wasn’t sure quite where.  Subes?  No.  But he was spot on that Le Corbusier used the chairs on the roof top garden of Charles de Beistegui’s Paris apartment.  

And then they began to pop up everywhere.

Christopher Filley has a set with octagonal backs.  Octagonal backs.  Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better.

I noticed them again on the set of Grey Gardens and then stumbled on a cameo appearance in the image, above, from the actual house.

Bunny Williams, again, at her pool house.

And garden.  Nearly everyone agreed they were 30’s to 40’s.  Internet research produced random bits here and there.  

Then I emailed Soodie Beasley.  As an antique appraiser she really knows things.  “Only if you know – don’t do any research!”  She emailed back immediately, “Victorian.”  Hmmm….no, no I don’t think so.  Nothing I was finding suggested they went back that far.

She did not follow instructions, naturally.  Being a friend and the kind of person who would understand being obsessed with a chair, she emailed back this link.  She was right, of course, 1866 at least.  She showed me what it was and where to find out more.

So yesterday I settled in to the quiet and serene library at the Nelson and read about my chair.  Francois A. Carre filed a U.S. patent for the garden chair in 1866.  Likely designed in France, these were also produced in the U.S.  Carre touted the uniqueness and superiority of the design.  Iron was “hard, clumsy and inconvenient.”  His chairs combined “strength and durability with neatness and convenience.”  They were manufactured on both continents as Innovative Furniture from 1800 to the Present by David Hanks confirms.  Extremely popular in the 20’s and manufactured through the 40’s, these later pieces are likely the ones I’m running across.

Again and again and again.

Images previously unattributed: David Hicks in David Hicks Designer by Ashley Hicks, green chair in The Way We Live with the Things We Love, Stanfford Cliff and Gilles de Chabaneix and, bottom, La Strada della Dolce Vita, Lynn von Kersting.

My latest Spaces article is about vintage wicker so it has been on my mind.  

Ok, so maybe it’s not so comfy, but it does have that casual summer air that is perpetually charming.  And that creaky, crunchy sound of settling into a wicker chair is one that is always on the tip of your brain.

Of all the styles, this one, with the big diamond weave, is my favorite.

In black, of course.

Images, from top, Hernan Arriaga for Rita Noona Schrager, Elle Decor, June 2009, photographed by William Waldron, a sketch by Albert Hadley featured in Albert Hadley, The Story of America’s Preeminent Interior Designer, Bunny Williams, her own home, from An Affair with a House and Colleen Bashaw for Congress Hall, House & Garden, August 2003, photography by Roger Davies.

After lunch yesterday I was headed home, but the painters were there and I knew they were sanding and it would be noisy and messy, so I took a detour.

Hammerpress has been in the Crossroads a good while.  In fact, I had them make Mr. Blandings’s 40th birthday invitations.  They’ve moved just around the corner from their original spot and I hadn’t made the time to stop in.

Brady Vest started the company in 1994 after finishing at the Kansas City Art Institute.  He had a thing for letterpress and he turned it into a jumping little business.

Brady was getting ready for First Fridays when I stopped in.  I told him I’d come back when everything was out and he said, “Come on back.”  As in the back room.  You do know I love the back room.

Piles of stuff and stacks of boxes and a palette of ink that I could have brought home and hung on the wall.

If you are a visual person this is the type of place that make your synapses snap, crackle and pop.

Covers for journals waiting for production,

cards

and stationary.

All designed and produced here in this little sunny spot on Southwest Boulevard.

Brady has done a lot of posters for local music venues and some of these are available at the shop and on-line.

But they do other posters as well.  One of the reasons I stopped was because a friend had mentioned the poster above.  

A reminder I could certainly use, though this one might be better for me.  I always forget this part.

One of the reasons I had Brady do Mr. Blandings’s invitation was because I wanted something really special.  It was so simple, just black and white, but I was taken with the idea that they would be produced by hand, by someone setting those blocks.

Hammerpress does custom work, of course, and has many samples of comprehensive work they have done for events and organizations.

I know the weather is not supposed to be great, but May is usually a hopping First Fridays; stop in and see Brady and his crew.

As an added incentive Fresher than Fresh Snow Cones will be set up right in front.  That’s at least two senses satisfied.

There is so much inspiration to be found from dining events and the tables that the designers put together.  I hope to have pictures from Dining by Design soon, but in the meantime wanted to share these images from Christopher Spitzmiller and his table at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House party at Sotheby’s.

Christopher threw the pots in the center and Roy Hamilton created the wood grain.

Roy also threw the chargers.

They used moss around the base of the centerpiece and the tablecloth and napkins are felt.  I love the restraint on the centerpiece.  The ferns are so lush and the empty vases become sculpture.

Chris said someone came by and felt the tablecloth during set up and said, “Oh, cashmere!”  A good reminder that people often see what they expect to see.  The mix of high and low, while adding some dimension, can also bring the “low” up.

The charming frog place card holders were floral district finds.  Be sure to click the images to see the pottery in detail.  I must say, some of my favorite pieces are the low votive holders; the candlelight makes the glaze glow.  Information on both Chris’s and Roy’s work can be found here.

All images courtesy of Christopher Spitzmiller.