Here’s a new batch of recent vintage finds - slightly more items than our last ‘Forthcoming Attractions’ post!
We’ll start with a few pieces for the kitchen. Quite a blue feel to the selection. These vintage mixing bowls often have cream interiors, but more rarely have these lovely coloured glazes in blue, orange or yellow. The utensil sitting inside the bowl is a drinks mixer or frother. The metal whisk end spins as you press the handle down - perfect for cocktails, hot chocolate etc.
The sugar or flour sifter is classic 1960s with its geometric pattern in sky blue & deep olive green. It’s from the ‘Tivoloi’ range produced by Portmeirion Pottery.
This bowl could also find a good home in the kitchen, but has a thousand uses around the house. We often feature these pieces of colourful enamel produced by Cathrineholm of Norway - teapots, pans, bowls, ice buckets and more!
Now for a bit of wood. The butter knife set is a great bit of Scandinavian design - sculptural and useful. It was produced by Karlsson & Nilsson of Sweden in the 1950s or 60s. We think the letter box is very sweet - it would give a lovely vintage touch to an office desk or hallway.
Probably our favourite object this week is this 1960s shopping list board. It’s a humble object and quite a rare survivor being so simply constructed. It certainly has lots of charm.
We love the graphics - wife doing a spot of homemaking, hubby out collecting the parcels!!
And finally, a bold flash of orange. The lampshade is a very good quality piece of cased glass - it was produced by Holmegaard of Denmark, in the 1960s or 70s. The fabric is from a similar era. We think it might have been produced by Crabtree Fabrics. It would make great cushion covers.
Or perhaps even more perfect… curtains for a vintage camper van. One glimpse of these and you’d be in a happy, holiday frame of mind!
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I’ve loved Gudrun Sjödén’s fashion for over a decade - it really my style. This pair of catalogues popped through in the post this week ad I can hold off buying no longer.
Striped, spotted & solid microfibre tights, from £13 per pair - Gudrun Sjödén
I am going to treat myself to a few pairs of the wonderfully colourful tights. It’s spring at the moment, but it’s still chilly enough to wear them!
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Perhaps ‘find’ is too strong a word - more a patient track down. We’ve long coveted this particular enamel mug designed by Kaj Franck for Finel.
We’ve been holding out for a really good example, in pristine condition. Our wait ended this week when we won the bidding on a well-known auction website. We just love the stylised birds and fiery colours - it really is a stunner!
Finel is responsible for some fantastic pieces of enamelware.
Great designers such as the aforementioned Kaj Franck, Seppo Mallat and Antti Nurmesniemi worked for the company.
Their pieces are decorative, functional & well made.
We have quite a few pieces dotted around the house including cups, teapots & bowls.
This bowl is decorated with a fabulous mushroom design. It was probably intended for the kitchen or dining table, but ours seems to have adopted the role of tea light storage container!
We also like to keep examples for sale in the shop. We currently have one of the teapot/kettles shown above. Also, this lovely set of bowls - perfect for serving starters, salads, curries, desserts - anything really! It consists of one large bowl with the geometric circle/grid design and six smaller bowls in the same vibrant blue.
One more design that still eludes us is the repeating red & white heart shape one - but we’re keeping our eyes peeled!
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We bought these items this week - most of them from one local contact actually. It’s quite a mid century modern collection!
Two lovely bits of German pottery for starters - they’re both by Dumler & Breiden. We love the colour contrast and striking repeat pattern of the bowl. The vase has a very distinctive form similar to another piece we’ve got. The combination of thick, textured glaze to the sides and smooth vibrant orange glaze highlighting the holes & vase rim is very effective. We’re trying to be quite strict with ourselves these days, but that’s probably a keeper!
And yet more flashes of orange with the desk lamp & cased glass vase. The lamp, dating from the 60s/70s, is adjustable and has a label for ‘1001 Lamps Ltd’ of London. The vase is unmarked, but dates from the same period.
There’s another nice table lamp in view, this one being teak with a fibreglass shade. The base looks very Danish.
And, staying with the Scandinavian theme, we have some interesting stainless steel pieces. The snack tray is Danish and quite an unusual shape; the pair of matching vases were made in Sweden. There’s some lovely Tupperware spice pots too - both colourful & practical.
…and then there’s the classic 1950s atomic zig-zag coat rack. We’ve had lots of these and grab them whenever we see them - they’re always really popular with our customers.
And last but not least, the teak drinks trolley that the items are sitting on.
This is a lovely piece of furniture dating from the 1960s. It has the ‘Remploy’ label to the base.
It’s got a great look, it’s useful and is in excellent condition. Did we say we were trying to be strict with ourselves?!
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Here’s a quick peek at a few of our recent purchases.
We’ll start with fabrics - a lovely pair of heavy curtains with a striped pattern in blues, greens & turquoise - perfect for keeping out those coming winter draughts. There are more shades of gorgeous green and a groovy pattern in the duvet cover.
The pottery kitchen storage jars are from the Kleen Kitchen Ware range produced by Sadler - a classic 1950s look.
The pedestal alarm clock is by Rhythm - its orange hour markers are a nice detail.
These stacking stools are perfect for a camper van or small kitchen - they’re stamped to the base ‘Chair Centre January 1972’.
This lovely Scandinavian mid century modern teak pestle & mortar is by Karl Holmberg.
The camera bag has all kinds of pockets and compartments and was manufactured by Hinomoto.
And last, but not least - the nest of tables that all the items are sitting on. They’re a wonderful shape and were manufactured by G-Plan.
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We think this is a future classic… having said that, it probably already is!
This biscuit tin was sold through Marks & Spencer only this Christmas gone. They’re already being resold for £15-£20 (without the Swiss biscuits!).
It’s a special commemorative tin celebrating 125 years of Marks & Spencer. It was designed by Sanna Annukka. She’s half English and half Finnish - and the illustration has a real vintage Scandinavian feel.
It reminds us of this original 1960s travel poster we had framed to display in our antiques centre pitch.
Not only the general style, but also the landscapes and even the colours.
The poster entitled Carefree by Coach is signed by ‘Bigg’. We have to confess, we’ve not been able to find out anything about him or her… but it’s a fantastic illustration.
We might have been tempted to pack a flask & sandwiches… and hop on board for our ‘carefree’ trip through the countryside!
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Adelle’s sister is a regular visitor to Sweden.
On one trip she picked up a selection of Swedish interiors magazines for us.
We’ve enjoyed browsing through them…
…particularly having a peek at the houses and products that haven’t appeared in UK publications.
We wanted to share a few of our favourites with you.
Here are links to the websites of the magazines that we’ve featured:
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It’s the start of a new year… so we’re starting a new alphabet blog series.
We picked up this fabulous stainless steel tea set over the holiday period - so ‘A’ just had to be for ‘Arne’… Arne Jacobsen that is.
He’s one of the great designers of the 20th century - and is the man responsible for designing this set.
It was manufactured by Stelton of Denmark in the 1960s. The various pieces are unused in their boxes… and retain their original labels to the underside.
The Cylinda-line brochures (of which the set is part) were inside the pots.
The range comprises a variety of tablewares including tea & coffee sets, salt & pepper pots, toast racks, sauce boats, serving dishes, coasters, cocktail mixers, ice buckets etc.
In fact, we sold the Cylinda-line ice bucket on the website last year.
The collection is beautifully made, very functional and looks fantastic too!
It was awarded the id Prize in 1967 by the Danish Society of Industrial Design and the International Design Award 1968 by the American Institute of Interior Designers.
A really great find to start the new year!
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