Metals

Gift Guide…Super Tsuba Inspired Napkin Holder

Found at almost any antique show and many shrine sales, Tsuba, the ornate metal sword hand guards, a key component of any good samurai’s sword uniform, are one of those things that befuddle me a bit. While I adore Japanese metal work and its incredible influence on my original specialty, 19th century American silver, I seem to lack enough testosterone to find the tsuba themselves fascinating. And buyer beware, they (along with inro and netsuke) are one of the few areas of Japanese antiques in which fakes, or recent copies abound. Real ones should be crazy expensive, as in 5 digit yen at least, so if you find one at a flea market for the equivalent of $50, most likely it is too good to be true. And like obidome, which I adore, they are beautiful, no doubt, but what are you actually going to do with them?

Enter November’s House Beautiful and an ingenious design by Josie Natori – this Tsuba inspired napkin holder – gorgeous holding paper napkins on a drinks bar, or even for an outside party, so that they won’t blow away.

A perfect house or holiday gift, no?

Nov 27, 2011 By tokyojinja in Antique Shows, Housewares, Metals, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: gift guide, Japanese metalwork, Josie Natori, sword guards, tsuba

Identify This…Brass Drum Stool

While we are chatting about my recent brass finds, let’s look back at another cute vintage brass item sourced from a Tokyo area shrine sale. Remember this guy found here last spring?

Well, he is now cleaned up a bit and safely ensconced here in my living room, having become an extremely useful addition to our household, a perfect spot to rest a book or cup of tea and serving as extra seating in a party pinch.

This is a slightly different style of “Identify This” post as I am honestly the one looking for help figuring out the origins of this small brass stool or table. I had not seen one before mine, but this summer at Calypso Home in NYC they had a larger and brand new side table sized one in the shop. No one there had any insight into the history of its style.

I have only ever seen one featured in a home design spread.

(Addendum: On a funny note, it was only after I received the Katie Ridder book I wrote about in my last post that I realized I had just shown another photo featuring not one, but two of these stools in one of her interiors! There is a shiny brass one adjacent to each the chairs in the photo.)

So without much to go on, I dived in to my usual research sources…Currently, there are a few available on 1stdibs right now, including this one from Belvair…

and this pair from lawson-fenning. Both are simply identified as 1960s vintage brass drum stools or tables and are priced at $325-365 each.

Adam Bram Straus just had one for sale in his Tastemaker Tag Sale on OKL too. It and the one directly above on the left look the most like mine, although mine is in better condition than either of them and none have the repeated concentric circles on the seat/tabletop.

Less expensive new ones, which honestly have inferiors lines, seem readily available, like this one from Cyan Design for $247.

They even come in other finishes, such as aged bronze or this fancy polished nickel from Arteriors, the most expensive of the bunch at $458 for the small size and over $1000 for the side table size.

But I haven’t been able to find any additional information, or even proof that these are 1960s designs. One source suggested they are Italian, another art deco, but I don’t see any evidence of either, other than the usual problem in which someone wrote it on the internet once, so now everyone quotes it like it is true. For my eye, they have a real campaign furniture look, but as they don’t actually fold up or disassemble easily, that is not it either.

So I open it to you my readers – any theories or clues on origin, time period or even additional photos of these in use? I’d love any ideas, speculative or fact-based….And most of all, I wonder how it ended up in Japan?

Nov 25, 2011 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Identify This, Interior Design, Metals, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: aged brass, brass drum stool, brass drum table, flea market, Katie Ridder, shrine sale

Katie Ridder, Eat Your Heart Out (Over My Latest Shrine Sale Find)

OK, so maybe that title is a little extreme, but I am so excited by my recent find and actually, I think she would be too! For those of you not familiar with her name, Katie Ridder is one of my favorite designers working today, with a most accomplished and interesting approach to interiors, a refined and coordinated eclecticism. Ridder has a brand new book out called Rooms, which I am dying for, of course! Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to get my hands on a copy yet (heavy holiday hint here).

Katie loves color and has a particular penchant for my favorite – lavender. In addition to the iconic book cover image with its amazing Kiki Smith etching, you can find the hue sprinkled liberally throughout her designs…

…and gently too.

She is also quite skilled at mixing it with blue and white porcelain, another favorite trick of mine.

She is a big fan of Muriel Brandolini prints, and also has her own line of charming patterns, including Peony…

…and the Japanese inspired Wave.

For me, Katie’s first great lavender room is from the days before digital images (1993!), but I am lucky enough to have saved it in my tear sheets, although it took me a good half day to find it. Featuring a lavender Asian toile from Manuel Canovas called Mandarin and quite a bit of whimsical ingenuity (love that valence) mixed with modern details, the small showhouse guest room, completed on a tight budget, was a clear stylistic precursor of what was to come. She worked with her husband, architect Peter Pennoyer, and I believe it was meant to invoke the Brighton Pavilion. Sorry the scan just can’t do the colors justice!

(Quick Addendum: I found a close-up of the toile in an old House & Garden tear sheet on Chinoiserie toiles. When I was writing this post originally, I couldn’t find a sample anywhere.)

More recently, to counter the vibrantly colored, robust and complex public living spaces she designs, Katie most often creates cool and tranquil sleeping areas. I come back to this simple guest room all the time, drawn in by the crisp hotel-like linens, Murano glass lamps and the mid-century Japanese brass globe lantern which, for me, is the key element that makes the space.

And so on to my find…Last weekend, I stumbled across not one, but two similar lanterns, in absolutely perfect condition. They also have a scrolling karakusa (arabesque vine) pattern, but no large flowers like Katie’s. And this photo, taken on the spot, somehow makes them look small, which they are not. No current plans for them, but I grabbed them as soon as I saw them and took them home! So let me gloat a little, and hope that the book finds its way to me this holiday season…

Image credits: 1-2, 6-7, 10-11. via Katie Ridder, 3-4 Elle Decor March 2008, photo credit: William Waldron, 5 & 13. Elle Decor March 2006, photo credit: Pieter Estersohn, 8. Elle Decor June 2009, photo credit: William Waldron, 9. Country Living November 2010, photo credit: Lucas Allen, 12. House Beautiful March 1993, photo credit: Antoine Bootz, 14. me. <a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3209837/tokyo-jinja?claim=bhbgv3skc8m”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Nov 20, 2011 By tokyojinja in Books, Movies & TV, Color, Interior Design, Lighting, Metals Tags: interior design, japanese antiques, Katie Ridder, lavender, shrine sale

My Kitchen Island is Back on the Table

Just been perusing the Jayson Home Fall Flea Market full of to-die-for antiques and other items, when I spied this late 19th century marble-topped cast iron table from France…

Close-up

…And this Belgian one with a salvaged oak top.

Close-up

Now I have talked a lot about the perfect kitchen island for my tiny Victorian beach cottage here. And just a few weeks ago I waxed endlessly about my long-term dream island from Peri Wolfman’s house here. And we all know that whatever I choose will be antique, but all of a sudden, the particular charm of a cast iron table base has really caught my attention. It wasn’t just these offerings at Jayson Home either. I saw one, brought all the way from France, at the Oedo market that day out shopping with Peri. I loved it – it was sold of course – and I wasn’t dragging it back to the US anyway (imagine the carbon footprint on transport from France to Japan to the USA). But I think the idea has been germinating in the back of my mind for a while.

The more I think about it I realize the idea is not a new one for me. I looked at a similar one this summer in Asbury Park at the great cast iron and garden furniture store.

It had a great rusty patina (I can hear some of you chuckling at that idea) but I also might have considered painting it. It was actually too small and once again sold to boot, but I liked the idea then. It was also missing its marble top.

Side view

So I went off to check that magic market of all things – eBay – and came up with a few gorgeous, but wildly expensive options (the items at Jayson have pretty hefty price tags too), including this 1920s French marble-topped butchers table with bull head details.

Amazing, but too large and at over $8000, definitely not the answer. But liking this idea…What say you all???

Image credits: 1-4. Jayson Home, 5-9. me, 10-11. via sillyrabbits95428q90

Oct 7, 2011 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design, Kitchens, Metals, Renovation and Decoration Report, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: Antiques Emporium of Asbury Park, cast iron table, French antiques, Jayson Home, marble topped bakers table, Oedo Antique Fair, Peri Wolfman, shrine sale

En Masse…Iron Teapots, Vincente Wolf and the Art of Grouped Displays

Jet lag always knocks me for a loop. Not so much physically – as a mom I have gotten used to sleep deprivation – but emotionally. The point of transition from my one life to my other is always a bit rocky. And invariably I forget each time that the previous change caused me any anxiety, imagining it to have been seamless. As I creakily fold myself back into my Tokyo routine, my husband reminds me of how discomfited I was upon arrival in New Jersey at the beginning of the summer. I find it hard to believe, but know it to be true and can even read the proof here. And so I know this state of “in between” shall also pass. My blog seems to share this schizophrenic life with me as I tend to write about that which is around me. Luckily, the wonderful Kawagoe shrine sale, held on the grounds of the Narita-san Betsu-in temple on the 28th of each month, welcomed me back with open arms. Filled to the brim with goodies like always, I was particularly struck by the proliferation of antique and vintage iron teapots.

Kawagoe is well known for its great metalwork antiques, although the best dealer of them has been supplanted by new bathrooms, arguably a reasonable trade-off although I wish they had relocated him elsewhere in the market. If anyone has seen him (the guy that was always in the front corner), please let me know!

The iron braziers and kettle stands are lovely in their own right.

You can always count on finding teapots at Kawagoe – this photo was taken last October and I could easily add more from other previous visits. Not sure who the red superhero guys are….

Whenever I see vintage Japanese teapots I think immediately of designer Vincente Wolf, one of the great masters of display, especially of weaving in Asian artifacts to his interiors. His love of travel permeates his work as does his photographer’s eye. In addition to 30+ years as a designer, he also has a showroom with an eponymous furniture line, antiques and decorative objects from around the world and a blog. He was the designer who showed me early on that a mass grouping of similar objects will always trump a scattered display. His are so successful because they activate his otherwise pure and spare rooms, creating unexpected focal points. The vignette below, from an apartment he designed featured in a 1995 Metropolitan Home, was a keeper in my inspiration files. As I left to live in Hong Kong less that two years later, it was highly influential to my own collecting habits.

In more recent designs, Wolf tends to mount individual objects on simple metal stands to great effect. For sale at the VW Home showroom, Wolf has ingeniously hung similar Chinese water vessels on stands.

Kawagoe yielded more items than just teapots that reminded me of Wolf’s designs. Also having great visual impact possibilities were these spool thread gears. Lying in the box they don’t look all that impressive, but mounted on stands or hung on a wall they would be stunning.

Wolf uses a pair of large gears hung on the wall in this room…

…and often uses other kinds of antique discs to make truly effective tableaux.

Another great accent are these roof tile caps found regularly at Kawagoe…

…and elsewhere.

They would look great displayed in a similar fashion to these finials.

Throughout his designs he uses all kinds of objects grouped together, from Buddhist stupas like these on the table…

…to Victorian door knockers shaped like hands elegantly arranged on a tray.

And while I have never seen Vincente Wolf use them in a display (although they certainly do look great en masse), there were also many small Japanese fishing floats for sale at Kawagoe this past weekend. Which of course brings me to my next order of business…

As for my previous identify this post, there were 4 correct answers! The item pictured is a kenzan used in the Japanese art of flower arranging called ikebana. In English we would call it a frog! Since I don’t know how to use that blogger give-away random selector, you will have to trust me as I do it the old-fashioned way and put the four names in a hat and choose one. (Rustling noise of paper) And the winner of a pair of small glass fishing floats is Julie Fukuda! Thanks everyone for your great guesses!

Having just taken a break from this post to skype with my best friend back in the States, I am reminded, by contrast, of how easy we modern-day expatriates actually have it. Instantaneous email, cheap telephone rates – through our computers we can shrink the world to the size of a pea. I think about the adventurers who left their homes through the centuries, not knowing if they would ever return or see family and friends again. For all of my whining above, I know that will never be an issue and that through my writing I am getting to share moments in my life and inspirations with those I love even when they may be far away.

Image credits: 1-4, 7, 10-11, 15-18. me, 5. Metropolitan Home November/December 1995, photo credit: Simon Watson, 6. via VW Home, 8-9, 12-13. via Vincente Wolf’s blog, 14. Metropolitan Home December 2007, photo credit: Vincente Wolf.

Sep 1, 2011 By tokyojinja in Expat Life, Glass, Interior Design, Metals, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: antique teapots, display, flea market, Japanese glass floats, Kawagoe, shrine sale, Vincente Wolf

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