The Scandinavian Design

We owe the Scandinavian design a lot of “Chef d’Oeuvre”, masterpieces of design history; most of them are now vintage furniture pieces. The Scandinavians have created a style, warm and sober, to fit in any interior.  Some produced in high series were quite cheap, and others signed could be really expensive, but you could always find one for yourself.

For the house fitting as well as for the society issues, the North countries had always been beforehand. The proof? Since the 20’s, the Finn architect and designer Alvar Aalto puts into practice the concept of “beauty for all” and tries to offer to the largest number of people some furniture with a design close to nature, appeasing and comfortable. Alvar Aalto is one of the pioneers of the waisted plywood, which offers sinuous forms, used on the famous “Paimio” chair(c. 1929), produced by Artek. Here is an indication to make the difference between the Finn design and its cousin the Danish design: all Danish furniture has more geometrical lines than the Finn one. The wood is a constant of the Scandinavian design, quite as the search for an uncluttered drawing, which makes it timeless and easy to fit in any interior. From where its success!

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The most looking for Scandinavian production is the one from 1950 till 1970, is nevertheless far from being uniform. The Danish Arne Jacobsen became a celebrity in 1952 for its famous Ant chair; it is very appreciated for its qualities of resistance and its joyful shape. Since 1955 are following a mass of declensions of it like the 7 series with a changing back. The talented Jacobsen has designed another masterpiece: the Egg Chair,

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Industrial strongbox that can be used as a perfect vintage decoration

You think, where am I going to handle all my gold coins?

Well, in an antique strongbox that can be used as a perfect vintage decoration as well!

If you want to find an antique one, be prepared to carry it! They were all very heavy, even empty!

It all began in England, with an impregnable lock. In 1784 Joseph Bramah patented a mechanism that was impossible to force, and founded the Bramah Locks Company. An American locksmith, Alfred C. Hobbs, succeeded in opening it and in turn he began to manufacture strongboxes. As for the armour plating, this we owe it to two British brothers, Charles and Jeremiah Chubb, who invented it in 1835. The Chubb lock company was founded in 1818. Jeremiah has invented the “Detector Lock” winning him £100 in a government competition to create an un-pickable lock that could only be opened by its own key.  His “Detector Lock” mechanism was designed to automatically jam the lock as soon as any attempt was made to pick it, and thus would let the owner knows about the unauthorised attempt.

Ten years earlier, in France, a certain Alexandre Fichet had opened a locksmith shop in Paris.

vintage decoration strongbox bauche

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Vintage Coffee Grinders

Another great vintage decoration that can fit in your kitchen and add this kitchenalia style you’re looking for.

And for the purist you will probably be able to use them! Some coffee grinders are still in good condition for their age.

Very popular item, you can find a lot of different coffee grinders since the arrival of coffee in 1669 in Europe.  Even if there is no quoted value for them, since 1989, the collectors called in French: “Mylokaphephile” (called before the “Molafabophile”) have created a non-profit organization to create a site with all the coffee grinders models, and to exchange as much information as possible, to exchange information and pictures about all those vintage coffee grinders, it is called the:  AICMC (Association Internationale des Collectionneurs de Moulins à Café).

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The coffee grinder was created in the 13th century in Turkey; they were at first using to crush all spices. At that time the coffee grinder was very rare, also the coffee. It’s in the 15th century that the distribution of coffee grinders and the craft manufacturing take their development, and during the 19th century, that the manufacturing in series appears.

Since, the foundries from the East region of France are manufacturing some good quality spare parts to get some strong grinders and commercialised in series by Peugeot and Goldenberg or Mutzig-Framont.

In 1889, “Peugeot Freres” is the leader on the market and commercialised 350 000 coffee grinders. Among the famous brands such as Peugeot Freres you can find Japy, Grulet, Gourdin-Lefevre, Goldenberg, Zassenhauss, Mutzig-Framont, Coulaux, Birambeaux… The brands present so many different coffee grinders; they can be of table, of wall, of “dinette”, of counter, of journey, electric, each brand is offering a range in every category. Their prices depend on their size and of course their rarity. You can try to find those made by cabinetmakers from the 18th century, made from different wooden essences with sometimes some inlaid ivory works, just fantastic!

The bigger ones, of counter are very desired by collectors and of course very rare to find in good condition. You can fix them on the table, they exist in 6 different sizes and they can weight until 25 kg, some with cranks and others with steering wheels.

The new materials will mark the 20th century, with bakelite and aluminum. Those can look really great in your kitchen as well!

You can also find some models in earthenware with flowery decoration, and some with atypical scenes from different regions, to add a country style. And if you prefer a 60′s – 70′s style there are some with geometric patterns or with words which can be wonderful too!

By 1930, the electrification led the crank to disappear, despite a resistance of the manual coffee grinders until the 50’s.

I’m sure you can find one to fit in you interior, those items are perfect vintage decoration. You will love them!

Have a look at all the kitchenalia we have in stock today!

A British iconic industrial lamp: the Anglepoise lamp!

The Anglepoise lamp is an amazing Industrial lamp which was commercialised by Herbert Terry & Sons Company for more than 80 years.

The Anglepoise History:

The British industrialist George Cawardine (1887-1948), who designed vehicle suspension systems, invented an extendible spring in 1932 and came up with the idea of using it for jointed lamp. Inspired by the movements of the human arm, this lamp was mounted on to tubes on which four of the famous springs allowed it to hold its position. The first version of the Anglepoise lamp was issued in 1934.

From 1955 onwards, Anglepoise lamps were installed on workbenches of the workshops at the “Maison Hermès”, their ergonomics responded perfectly to the requirements of this world in which accuracy and the quality of each movement were essential.

The Anglepoise lamp “Original 1227”

This lamp was first presented on an enamel base, 3 stalks maintained in position by 4 springs. The lampshade is in aluminium. First change in 1935: only 3 springs and the base has 3 different levels. Three years later the base again is reduced to 2 levels. The after war lamps are easy to recognize because of the stalks made in aluminium, and the heads in zinc. Then in 1969, the base became round.

vintage decoration anglepoise lamp

In 2004 with the help of the designer Kenneth Grange, the company had launched the “75 Type” and in 2007, the “1228 Type”.

Few dates:

  • 1932: creation of Anglepoise by George Cawardine
  • 1932-1933: hand made production “Equipoising”
  • 1934: creation “Anglepoise 1209” for industrial use

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  • 1935: “Anglepoise 1227”

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  • 1969: “Anglepoise Model 50” substitute to the “1227”
  • 1989: “Apex 90” a better version of the “Model 50”

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  • 2003: “Type 3”, contemporary version of the “1227”
  • 2004: “Type 75”, new version of the “Model 75” and “Giant 1227”, the “1227” XXL version with suspension

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  • 2007: “Fifty” the original to “50 degrees”
  • 2009:  Republication of the “Original 1227”

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The Anglepoise Nowadays

Nowadays the Industrial Lamp Anglepoise is still manufactured, few miles from Brighton (the “Giant” only) by the 6th generation of Herbert Terry & Sons Company who was first to manufacture it. The rest of the 40 000 to 50 000 items produced each year are manufactured in Asia.

You can buy a brand new one or hunt for a Vintage one!

All about the Anglepoise:

Why not adding a vintage decoration style in your kitchen?

After hanging on your wall your grandma’s moulds, keep going with the kitchenalia style by using different wire objects as the famous vintage egg wire basket!

Skillfully shape, the wire is the ally of the cooker, it takes care of the grills and the salads, it drips the frying fish, it presents the bread and the fruits, it is sometimes an egg-cup, a bottles-carrier or a table mat. It is also known for other applications which extends in many domains.

vintage decoration wire egg basket

Cheap and strong, the wire complies with all desires. In the 17th century it was used for everything, most for repair. Then, in the 20th century this wire exceeded the utility and became a wide range of domestic objects in a country style. Like eggs basket, bottles carrier, gloves carrier, the wire object is protean. You can find so many different objects: wastebaskets, egg-basket, colander, bread-basket, fruits-basket… a lot of items to give a vintage decoration style to your interior.

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Inspiring Ideas of Vintage Decoration with your grandma’s moulds

You will create a great kitchenalia style in your kitchen by using those old moulds.

Sparkling copper, rustic in terra-cota or modest in cast iron, the baking tins are just asking to be used again! They can also decorate so well your kitchen’ walls or even your shelves.

They became more democratic during the 20th century. The sophisticated pastries baked until now especially for the wealthy elite, invites itself to the middle-class table, thanks to the discovery of the beet sugar.

The sweet dishes, served on a service trolley at the beginning of each meal had to be as nice as good.

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The brassworkers had to excel themselves to realize some perfect baking tins adapted to the various specialities of cooking.

Many of them present some spectacular decorations:  straight or trunks grooves, swags, and floors for tiered cakes… Those luxurious tinned copper moulds request a lot of maintenance and remain the privilege of the bourgeois’ houses and restaurants. They are still nowadays very popular. The most modest households are looking for the white iron ones, more practical for use and cheaper, but sensible to rust, also light and easy to manufacture. The cast iron baking tins are simpler than their copper’ equivalent: tart mould, panettone mould, charlotte mould, brioche mould, cannele mould… and many other cook tops for small pastries like: the “Madeleine”, the “financier”, the “langue de chat”… Nevertheless, this material, still used nowadays, is going to be less and less used during the 50’s, replaced by the aluminium material which was easier to work with and totally insensible to oxidation.

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What is the industrial furniture style?

Nowadays, the industrial style knows a considerable development. All industrial furniture and decoration can fit as well in a country house as in a purely design placed. Besides its functional aspect, its plays on the raw and on metallic materials, also on the straight lines and turns away easily to make it essential.

Every metal’ furniture used in the work’s world can become a nice piece of furniture in your own home and add a real industrial vintage character.

Its story began during the 18th century. Privilege of the powerful, the metallic furniture became more democratic under the Second Empire and under the Industrial Revolution to join now the house. It became aristocratic stylish and popular at the same time.

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The industrial aesthetics was born in 1851, when Sir Joseph Paxton, engineer and nursery gardener of Queen Victoria, designed and built in a few months the huge Crystal Palace, of cast iron and glass, for the world fair of London. The Eiffel Tower, built in 1889, is another embodiment.

 

The first industrial furniture is deliberately functional. They are made to fit for a particular function in the industry. It’s in France, in 1969, that the brand Prisunic had launched the first collection of steel furniture for the house.

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Gras lamp: A special vintage Industrial Lamp

What a fantastic and innovative lamp designed by Bernard-Albin Gras!

As its sister the Jielde lamp, the Gras Vintage Industrial Lamp takes a special place in the world of lightning history. Manufactured in 1922, it inaugurates a new kind of articulate lightning that corresponds to the Industrial need as well as the tertiary sector rapidly expanding. There are neither screws nor welded joints in the basic form. This is the lamp for industries and also for engineering firms, laboratories etc… up to the Normandie liner’s office. This lamp was used to light architect’ tables and artists’ studios as well as machine tools.

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On the 13th of October 1921, Bernard-Albin Gras applies for the patent Number 531 001 for an Industrial Lamp. He was one of the most innovative designer of the 20th century. The functional esthetic of his lamps and especially the design of details such as those of the articulated brackets, supports and bases were truly original and far ahead of his time.

The next year, the lamp is manufactured by Maurice Bruneteau from Sainte-Suzanne, then it is Louis-Didier des Gachons who gets the production of the lamp in his company “L’Industrie du Tourniquet et du Classeur” (Revolving Rack and Cabinet Manufacturer). They both create a range with 23 models of the lamp for everybody in industries, offices and every working situation.

Finally, the lamp signed “Lampe ajustable” “GRAS” stamped “S.G.D.G.” is manufactured in 3 finishes: chrome, nickel and black enamel. Since it was first produced in the 1920s it has had an exemplary career without even the slightest modification in half a century, a record!

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How she did became a legend?

At first it was Le Corbusier who was seduced by the modern design and user friendliness of the lamps and introduced it in his own offices, as well as employing it in numerous architectural projects all over the world. He was saying that it was a “tool-object” and he became one of the most enthusiastic supporters. Other people followed this trend as well, like Robert Mallet-Stevens, Eileen Gray, Jacques Emile Ruhlmann, Michel Roux-Spitz, some famous painters: Georges Braque and Sonia Delauney and so many others…

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From june 1927 Louis-Didier des Gachons joins Jean-Ravel and in 1932, the Gras Lamp took the name: RAVEL lamp. This new lamp will be manufactured until 1970.

Today the lamp Gras has become a collector’s item all over the world, most notably in France, in the United States and in Japan. Bernard-Albin Gras’s talented and visionary design has proven to be timeless.

His lamp became an icon of the 20th century!

How to know the exact date of manufacture:

  • 1921: the electric cord is completely out of the lamp
  • 1922: the flat connecting rod is replaced by a hollow connecting rod to get the electric cord isolated, the stamp “Lampe ajustable GRAS” brevetee S.G.D.G.”
  • 1927: stamped with “Ravel”
  • 1930: stamped “Lampe ajustable D.G.R.”
  • 1932: stamped “Lampe R.A.V.E.L. Clamart”
  • 1960’s: green or grey colors
  • 1970: composite wooden kneecap (permaly).
  • 2008: Philippe Cazer and Frederic Winkler formed the DCW Company and reissued the Gras lamp.

The Gras Nowadays:

Since 2008, Philippe Cazer and Frederic Winkler formed the DCW Company and reissued the Gras lamp. The Gras lamp is reissued within 35 models in total and 2 special Gras furniture! Thus, the Gras lamp fits perfectly in every corner of your home or office!

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I personally find that the original vintage ones have so much character, let’s hunt them for antiques!

Discover all about its sister the Jielde lamp or check out all my Top 10 Favourite Industrial lamp!

More information about the Gras lamp:

Singer: iconic Vintage Industrial Brand

Sewing machines were not the only things manufactured by the world-famous Singer Company! They also manufactured some great industrial furniture such as the Singer stool and the Singer chair, a must-have for vintage lovers!vintage-industrial-furniture-singer-stool

New York, 1851, I.M. Singer & Company is created. Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875) is the inventor of the sewing machine. At first, all the items were manufactured in New York, Frederick Gilbert Bourne (1851-1919), head of the firm at the beginning of the 20th century, built up the first worldwide company in spreading the brand all over the world by establishing some customer and distribution services in every countries, and also in building many different factories abroad.

Isaac Merritt Singer had invented the hire-purchase system in order to equip as many women as possible. “Owning a Singer was the ambition of many working women, who would buy them on credit, with a subscription. Many married women hoped to earn some extra money while taking care of their homes”.

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The ”Navy 1006” chair, what a fascinating vintage industrial chair!

How amazing is this unsinkable chair. Did you ever dreamt of having such a nice industrial furniture in your living room?

First built in the USA in the 40’s (1944 in Hanover, Pennsylvania) by Emeco (Electric Machine and Equipment Company) for use on the American submarines and warships, to answer their specified contract “the chair had to be able to withstand torpedo blasts to the side of a destroyer”. And in fact Emeco’s founder in participation with Alcoa’s experts, Witton C and Dinges, have designed the 1006, an industrial chair so durable that it far exceeded the Navy’s specifications.

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The Navy Chair has been in continuous production ever since. The Emeco chair embodies the perfect shape and material fusion.

It is a handmade item. Made of aluminium (so antimagnetic) very light but also very strong (can support more than 500kgs). The craftsmen take twelve parts being welded together, then being ground to create a seamless one-piece look. Finally, the chair is anodized for a durable finish. They need 4 hours to make it with around 50 movements and 77 steps Process.

This marine chair will go threw all oceans until the 70’s: during the cold war the sales stopped. And in 1998, Gregg Buchbinder acquires the Emeco Company and brings it a new corporate culture. He asked the French designer Philippe Starck to work with him. It is a success: the turnover gets a 300% rising and the staff triple!

After Philippe Starck many great designers have designed the “Navy 1006”, like Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, and Andree Putmann, they all signed a reedition.

Nowadays, “The Navy Chair” is still manufactured and the The aficionados give it the nickname of “Ten o six”.

You would like to find an original one?

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