Skip to content

Archive for

bibelots

June 30th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

BIBELOTS is my intention to expand a narrative of beauty. A focus on beauty can be lost in the world of design when our desire to fulfill our own singular narrative outweighs a need for suitability, simplicity, and proportion.

A bibelot by definition is a small object of curiosity, beauty, or rarity. A secondary definition is a miniature finely crafted book. These books: leather with gilded imprints and marbleized paper are not particularly miniature; nor are they rare relative to the world at large . Indisputably–in my fanciful world– they are beautiful.

-Solana Beach, Antiques Warehouse on June 21, 2007.

army navy

June 30th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

What to say about walking arm in arm?

I’ve been reading Max Egremont’s biography: “Siegfried Sassoon A Life” and one sees that history does indeed repeat itself. In a chapter from the bio called The heroics of pacifism is a stanza from his poem titled ‘To Any Dead Officer’:

Somehow I always thought you’d get done in,
Because you were so desperate keen to live:
You were all out to try and save your skin,
Well knowing how much the world had got to give.

Staffordshire ca 1854 at The Antiques Warehouse, Solana Beach, CA.

many isabellas

June 30th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

A collection of French and German dolls. My good friend Isabella and I like to imagine ourselves in big wigs all dressed up with places to go. Note the ribbon at the bottom right that reads: …DOLL CLUBS 18Th ANNUAL EXHIBIT 1997 ANAHEIM CALIFORNIA, FORTH PLACE.

upper eastside redux

June 29th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

I’d forgotten a to post this pic. It’s was a week of activity after my vacation and 3 days in Vail doing an install.

These bottles were particularly gorgeous: stocky but delicate ready to bring forth a mellifluous scent. At Skyscraper. Knowing little about Art Deco silver the handsome man sitting at a desk told me Jean E. Puiforcat was a leading silversmith of his time.

These three bottles perfectly capped would look lovely; if I had a vanity replete with bottles. If I did, I would want them sitting on it next to my Creed, Santal Imperial and my Paratus by Montgomery Taylor.

NFS

June 29th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

Not for sale, would seem an oddity in the shop business. One runs across it at flea markets–tagged on the thing that you want. We all become attached to our things. I’m sure many people could explain why: it serves a funtion; it’s particularily sweet.

I remember the dealer with her favorite bowl at the Santa Monica Flea Market early one morning. A friend picked it up and the dealer said when she asked the price, “Oh, it’s not for sale!” My friend, a dealer herself, went on a little rampage the gist being that if you are in the sales buisness it’s best to make the sale. The dealer with the bowl just smiled pointing to the dreaded sticker on the lip of the bowl. Why is the thing tagged the thing you want?

This head of an idealized beauty– I ran across at the antiques mall in Solana Beach on Cedros Ave.–go check her out, I’m sure she will still be there.

l’objet de boutons

June 24th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

How long did it take to save and find all of these? This seemingly nonrepresentational–somewhat anthropomorphic– sculpture is about 5′ tall with much more presence than what is seen in these photos. Buttons and wire and steel: the same artist as the screen. In both pieces one can see: collecting and gathering and amassing of materials; reuse and reinvention of purpose.

red stool

June 23rd, 2007

Daniel Pontius

Another sweet stool, bentwood with a leather seat all with a nice patina.

I love that the seat-back-supports mirror the legs below. Studio 1 eleven, Palm Springs.

palm springs ornament

June 20th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

Now, in California for a holiday, I was in Palm Springs over the weekend. I love a good sun motif. Let us all evoke the power of Apollo! Do you remember when raisin bran used him too–illuminating the hearty longshoremen.

The shopkeep at Studio One 11 told me they are known for unusual and one of a kind pieces within a mix of modern to vintage pieces. There was a petal table and a swag desk–older pieces that have a quiet layer of depth to them. There were also some BassamFellows stools.

I particularly thought this screen brilliant. A complex wood frame painted as if with milk paint and a panel made up square cut paint by number boards.

There is an original look to a paint by numbers painting. The quality of the paint by numbers paint–muted tones of greens and browns and blues that develop into a graphic scene from the contiguous application of paint in a pre-specified areas.

When this artist cuts the paintings up and rearranges and complies many different paintings together it starts to develop a new narrative of its own (Did he paint these himself? Did he collect them from garage sales over a period of years? Is he implying something about creativity?) and he assembles his own work; a new landscape.

Some might say that this now has moved outside of the world of art and into the realm of the decorative arts and ornament with its central purpose of utility: to block or shield the eye from some view. This utility is further articulate by the nail heads which help to create a over all balance in a rhythmic repetitious field.

Did i say I adore this screen? I can not remember the artist’s name but you can find out if you contacting the nice shop keep directly.

yellow

June 16th, 2007

Daniel Pontius



Have you not read Virgina Woolf’s short story, The New Dress or, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman? When a client says, I just adore yellow–flags of warning start to wave in my eyes.

I have had an adverse relationship with the color yellow since 1992. During a stretch in Seattle when I thought I’d be come a faux painter, I practiced on the walls of my bijoux apartment transforming it into some Tuscan villa ca 1972 with an avocado green love seat and a Nuguchi dining table and peach silk curtains–all found in the basement of my former apartment building. I must say I worked what I had to a fantastic effect.

But, how could one pass up this lamp? The glaze with hints of burnt umber and its integral base is complete in itself. All it needs is a crisp linen lampshade and a bit of rewiring– at Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market.

As for having a yellow room, I’m coming back around to it. I would recommend the color for your guest room where you won’t be staying for any prolonged periods of time.



glass candlesticks

June 15th, 2007

Daniel Pontius

There is always an expectation of a precious find when visiting Penine Hart. Penine, a thoughtful editor of the interesting, romantic, and beautiful, has a keen eye.

When I was in last week, Penine told me that she bought these candlesticks because they were similar to a matching pair that she had once found in France. These three of regulated heights ; brass with a center rod of glass, I thought were at first an odd combination of lucite and brass within a Federal-like form, but Penine made it clear they were glass.

The clear glass shaft one might find a comparison–lingering in the liminal depths of our minds– to more contemporary Lucite pieces like Dorothy Thorpe’s candle holders. There, the center acrylic shaft was turned into a knot or bent perpendicular and either one or both ends were capped with a sterling silver holder.

The brass and glass candle sticks can be purchased for about 200 if they are still available over at 100 Kenmare Street in NYC.