Doris Athineos

Rocking Out

Written on March 31, 2011 at 10:18 am
By Doris Athineos

Real rockers may prefer digging up their own gems but I’ll take this box of rocks, minerals and fossils slated to hit the auction block at Christie’s South Kensington April 6.

British mineralogist  Thomas Russell (1838-1928) began selling rocks in 1848 when he was ten! The goody box contains 36 specimens including lapis, agates and polished pebbles. There’s another tray for fossils.  What a great cabinet of curiosities to have at hand next time some pint-size friends come to visit. When they leave, you can examine the specimens for yourself.  The box includes two yellowed labels–both Russell and his successor, William James Shaw.

Where to hunt for beautiful, bold antiques in NYC

Written on February 18, 2011 at 3:48 pm
By Doris Athineos

It’s not a crystal ball (above) but we predict that the New York Design Center (200 Lexington) will become a one-stop shopping destination for the design community now that 1st Dibs has landed on the 10th floor. The New york Design Center has it all (new, old and vintage) under one roof. Show us what you like. Here are some more of our favorites:

Cyberspace 1st Dibs lands at The New York Design Center

Written on February 17, 2011 at 4:08 pm
By Doris Athineos

Do you even remember what shopping was like before 1^st Dibs?  Still, we miss the random encounter with a bold antique that suddenly crosses your path. Now you can have it both ways. The online powerhouse 1^st Dibs, which connects shoppers to 1,000 art and antiques dealers around the country (as well as Canada, Paris and London), just opened a loft-like pavilion at the New York Design Center (200 Lexington).  No longer confined to cyberspace, design devotee can now cruise the merch of some 50-plus dealers spread out across 33,000 square feet. The selection is tightly edited by  Michael Bruno and only the boldest, most beautiful objets make the cut.  This is a collection of art, antiques and furnishings with a point of view.

What’s different is that you get a real sense of a dealer’s style walking around their room-size booths. We fell in love with special exhibition curated by Roger Prigent of Malmaison. Does anyone not love the over-the-top, glow-in-the-dark Lucite sleigh bed that once belonged to makeup diva Helena Rubenstein? Mr. Prigent’s large shell mirror by Renzo Mongiardino is killer too. Love the lavender walls, sparkling Jansen chandelier and Palm tables by Serge Roche (1898-1988). The mood was very romantic and somehow exotic.FOUR STARS

The monochromatic black assemblages by Philadelphia artist Maria Nevelson are just the kind of random encounter that will keep you coming back for more. “She’s the granddaughter of Louise Nevelson,” explained dealer Eve Kelly Herman of Highland Park. Who knew? Check out the steampunk style furnishings at Get Back Inc.

What did you find?

Frost-smitten cabinetmaker goes fractal

Written on January 5, 2011 at 12:41 pm
By Doris Athineos

Inspired by the patterns of frost fogging up his windows, cabinetmaker David Lamb grabbed his sketchbook. Then he began reading about fractal geometry. “Mathematicians explain that frost and wood-grain patterns are fractals–self-replicating patterns,” says Lamb, who phoned Traditional Home from his studio in Canterbury, New Hampshire. After contemplating frost and fractals, Lamb settled on the design for his dynamic demilune table (detail above) which he named “Palladian Frost-Birch Fractal.”  Wow!

Lamb turned math into art. The pattern of the veneer looks like the facets of a diamond. And the crotch-birch grain pattern looks like a rippling tide. “All the nooks and crannies are another fractal feature,” explains Lamb. “The Bauhaus school of architecture is so sterile and reflects straight Euclidian geometry shapes. I prefer more detail. Fractals are all around us–snowflakes, frost, ferns, mountain ridges.”

The “Palladian” reference refers to the half-circular shape (“like a window”). We love the sweep of the stretcher, which Lamb explains is “the same curve as the apron.”

Lamb has other ideas he would like to explore if a patron were to commission another piece based on fractals. The demilune table pictured here isn’t for sale. For a closer look at the work of New Hampshire’s Artist Laureate  (and a member of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association), tap into David Lamb cabinetmaker.

Sound and Vision

Written on December 15, 2010 at 12:29 pm
By Doris Athineos

New paintings by Ethiopian-born Tesfaye Tessema were unveiled at New York’s Skoto Gallery last week (on view through January 22). The soft-spoken artist is at the peak of his performance. Tessema describes his art as “playing jazz with a brush.” We call it eye music. If you put Duke Ellington’s big band on canvas, it would look like Tessema’s “Symphony in Color.” His abstract language of color swings and the United Nations agrees. A few years ago, they turned one of his paintings into a stamp (to raise money for famine relief).

Affordable Art for the holidays

Written on December 6, 2010 at 10:45 am
By Doris Athineos

Art is at the top of my holiday wish list. And one of the best ways to find affordable, museum-quality paintings is by discovering young, emerging talent or rediscovering an established master with a museum track record. That’s why I can’t wait for Thursday, December 9, when Tesfaye Tessema, a native of Ethiopia who lives in Harlem, unveils his newest work at New York’s Skoto Gallery (529 West 20^th Street). The artist caught my eye several years ago, but he has a following among top gallerists, museum curators and serious collectors. The Guggenheim Museum has exhibited his paintings and the artist was invited to paint murals for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. But nothing prepared me for his latest abstract paintings bursting with juicy color. I love the dancing dots and squares.  High-energy and life-embracing, these abstract jewels have a musical quality and shouldn’t be missed. In fact, I’d like to find one hanging on my wall come Christmas morning.

Inside Giacometti’s Studio

Written on November 29, 2010 at 11:09 am
By Doris Athineos

In an art book owned by Giacometti, there’s a face off with Van Gogh (see above). On a torn-out newspaper page reporting on President Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, Giacometti scribbled a beard on Oswald’s face. There are several eye-popping bronzes in the show (see Grande tête mince, above), but for a close encounter with best kind, spend time with the sketches and Peppiatt’s new book, In Giacometti’s Studio (published by University Press). Giacometti never felt more alive.

Fabulous Fakes

Written on October 27, 2010 at 1:32 pm
By Doris Athineos

The BBC’s Antiques Roadshow expert Judith Miller, the brain behind the Miller’s guide books, stopped by Traditional Home’s New York office to spread the word on why now is the right time to collect. She was bitten by the collecting bug some 40 years ago, but there’s never been a better time to buy a piece of history. “You can get astonishing bargains at auction right now,” enthused Judith, who was visiting the U.S. to promote her new book Costume Jewelry (Octopus Publishing).

In London, a single Chippendale chair made in the 1760s goes for less than $300. What about two, large, blue-and-white transferware platters for $200? “Nineteenth-century chest-of-drawers are going for $150 and will last another 200 years,” said Judith, who keeps her fingers on the pulse of the marketplace through her (free) online price guide millersonline.com. If you’re hankering for grand furnishings at humble prices, try thumbing through Roseberys and Criterion auction-house catalogs available online.

In a thrift shop in Los Angeles, Judith scored a pair of Dior copycat earrings for $4. “Christian Dior did similar earrings, and my thrift-store pair were probably made in the 1960s,” she explained. “That’s why I’m addicted to collecting costume jewelry. There’s still plenty out there and you can find things for very little.”  Some hot spots? Galveston, Texas proved fruitful. What to look for?

• value is based on rarity, quality design and designer name
• In order of popularity-Miriam Haskell, Trifari, Chanel and Dior (tie) and Schiaparelli (“Couture costume brings the highest prices”)
• best quality has prong-set stones (not glued) and heavier
• variety of glass shapes and cuts
• weight

Her favorite contemporary costume jewelry designers are Alexis Bittar, Hanna Bernhard and Bijoux Heart. If you love costume jewelry as much as we do, buy the book.  Like the jewelry, it’s a keeper you will refer to again and again.

Prize pig brings $155,000 at auction

Written on October 18, 2010 at 9:29 am
By Doris Athineos

The original cover art for Charlotte’s Web went for $155,000 at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. Drawn by American illustrator Garth Williams for E.B. White’s beloved classic, the illustration was one of 42 consigned by the family. Few among us raising children can ever forget the opening line: “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” Why is it that Wilbur and a kindhearted spider, first introduced to us in 1952, still speak to kids today?   What are your favorite children’s classics?

Rough and Refined

Written on June 2, 2010 at 1:56 pm
By Doris Athineos