Life on the Walls

" A work of art goes through many phases of development ..but in each phase it is always a work of art "- Hans Hoffman

This quote comes to my mind when friends often ask me if there is some-thing "missing" on this wall- since its lacks the 'expected' symmetry. Our ever-evolving dining room, and the collage of art work on its walls keep changing with time.

When we started our lives together many years back, decorating our modest apartment became our most-cherished pastime- like many of you. It was all very clean lines back then, awash with white walls & white linen with simple, modern & colorful accessories. However, over the years, experimenting, and out of sheer boredom and the need for change, our design ideas kept shifting. About 2 years back, Joe had a new wave of inspiration and started collecting old paintings ( the ones with gilded frames , very traditional ones ) which were such a contrast to our initial years. However, we were so mesmerized by the sheer beauty of some of the worn-out frames and faded-tones, that transitioning to another phase of decor happened as a natural phenomenon.

As much as I would love to fill up our wall with many paintings ( the ultimate plan is a salon-style wall), as most of you "collectors" already know, one would pick up a piece only when one absolutely falls in love with it, at which point the artwork becomes a "must-have". And so we keep adding one by one to our collection based on our hunts and trips. So now you know why the wall lacks symmetry !!

Here are some pictures on the journey of how this wall & the room came to be, since we moved into this house 3 years back.

Above : In recent times, kitchen's have become the new "gathering places", for your close friends and family to spend time. And the natural spill-over would be into the dining room. The bench above offers a great solution there, it easily accommodates 3-4 people in a informal gathering without feeling too crowded during lunch or dinner. It also serves another purpose - and here's the fun part: The men folk would usually sit backwards on the bench, facing the kitchen, and participate in the lively "kitchen-discussions"!

Above : A few weeks later, the center chair, which is slightly taller than the sides ones was added (we were experimenting and it worked well). The interesting part to note here is that NONE of the elements here belong to the same dining set or series- they were all individual pieces which we put together to create our own mix! (That was a risky move, but Joe was trusting his gut-feel). The chair also got a make-over from Joe. He had just got these ormolus and he "had" to try it on something, giving it a french feel.
Above: Wall treatment. The first thing to go on the wall behind was a mirror and it stayed alone there for a long time..as we were thinking of what else to do.
Above: These additions came about a year back from estate sales. A vintage lithograph, a small chinese oil floral , another animal oil-painting from a Australian artist, and a watercolor from an Argentenian artist. We took off the Kangaroo couple of months back to give him a better-ground and put up the "LaMode Illustree" fashion plates there (see below).

Below:We featured this pair of beauties ("LaMode Illustree" fashion plates) in a separate post on this Blog to give the whole history of these amazingly beautiful pieces. They still remain one of our most cherished pieces on this wall.And so the story of our wall continues to grow! Will we fill up the whole wall? Who knows? One day we might wake up and do just that .. ;-)

Weekend Treasures !

Last weekend, we went treasure-hunting. With the onset of spring, folks have started venturing out again. Couldn't think of anything better to do, than fishing out some bric-a-brac and spending some "quality time" restoring them to their days of gone-by elegance.

A word of caution: What you are seeing here as gleaming white china, silverware and furniture did not look so when we got it. Many were coated with layers of dirt, and dust, or oxidation, and required several backbreaking hours of labor to get them in this condition, since most of these were already in very fragile condition and required several rounds of hand washing.
Even more grueling was the countless digging-hours spent with our toddler who had absolutely no pleasure in antique hunting. (and who was all the more upset when we did not buy him the $100 vintage toy car that he spotted!)
Disclaimer: So attempt salvaging pleasures at your own risk. :) It's rewarding, and greatly frustrating at the same. If giving up your entire weekend (including grocery shopping) doesn't sound like that great an idea to you, then please do not attempt this. Happy Blogging- Joe & Aswathy.


We were unable to determine the era of this fine dutch ashtray. It has a stamp "HOLLAND". Estimate 1940-50's sterling silver plated. The picture depicts seven men who look like soldiers (since they are wearing swords) at a tavern. A dog is in the foreground.


Set of six coasters. Paper on Cork. Looks like more recent (60's-70's?). All are line drawings of various historic buildings in Boston. The pieces came wrapped in a case marked Vistaprint, Made in Britain. The artist, whose signature is below each drawing bears the name of "Guy Magnus". Looks like a lesser known artist, and the only trace we could find is of an Auction record on Artfact.com, which sold 8 Guy Magnus, pen and ink drawings of town scenes. We are guessing that these could have been the originals of the images shown on these coasters- since these are also drawings of town scenes in Boston, but only 6 of them.
After a whole afternoon of searching for the history of this basket- ranging from Corporate Logo Evolution of Sears, and countless bassinets and baskets, we estimate this to be a 1920's-30's era doll accessory. Little girls played with the popular "Honeysuckle" Brand of buggies- of which the above basket was a part of. It has the label "Sears, Roebuck & Co"- now known as SEARS. It also says "Honeysuckle" Brand on the inside. The basket is amazingly sturdy, and in great condition for a piece clocking 80-90 years! Please give a hearty welcome to our new laundry basket.

The above is a Lithograph of a series known as Herring's fox hunting scenes. "Breaking Cover" is the title of this litho. The original is a mid 1800's painting-Painted by J. F. Herring Sr. ( 1795 - 1865), and several engraved reproductions were made in later years. (This one could be 1950's or 60's based on the condition). It came in a solid wood gilded frame, with glass, in good condition and with no foxing (age related brown spots that we see on old paper and documents) on the litho.


We are using the above creamer-like cup for storing salt within easy access, with a tiny little spoon to go with it. There is no make or mark on this one, but we picked it up because we really liked it. Sometime you just have to go with your heart.

A single plate from one of Joe's favorite China manufacturers- Mottahedeh. The white is actually pale gray in daylight. Early Chinese porcelains had a definite gray-blue cast, which is called gray body. Mottahedeh makes many Chinese reproductions and gray body is often used. (Actually this one was manufactured for Mottahedeh by an Portugese company called Vista Alegre).
This one's a rare gem! Need to do some more research on what period this piece belongs to, so at this point we really dont know. (More on Mottahedeh at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Mottahedeh)

2 Vintage Noritake Mini-cups with "Ear of Corn/wheat" pattern. (By the way, Ear of Wheat/Corn has been a symbol of prosperity in many cultures and ceremonies). Still around as a fine china leader, Nortitake (of Japan) has been making Fine Bone China since 1904 (We got hooked onto Noritake even since we got our first full china set 2 years ago). The pair above is from around 1954.

We got 4 pieces of very delicate vintage white porcelain. These have a large(wide) mouth that makes it very easy to sip tea or coffee, and have a border of green leaves and very dainty white flowers with an aged platinum trim. The bottom is stamped with a black crown - the insignia of St. Regis Fine China , a Japanese porcelain manufacturer of yore. The cup is aprox 5 inches including handle x approx 2 inches.


Antique Brass Tray- Solid Brass, oval tray that has brass railings on the side (looks like bamboo-railings). Havent seen one like this before. It's heavy, but can serve 10-12 large cups easily (8 with saucers!). We've been looking for a tray that can hold a lot of stuff because often we find smaller cute ones, but they are not practical even when we are serving for 4 people.

The saucer that's sitting in the tray was a single odd piece that we got. The image is that of a Victorian era couple in a garden. The manufacturer is Harker Pottery Co. that has been around since the 1840's till as recent as 1970 when they closed down. The logo behind seems to be from somewhere around 1940-1950, and says 22Kt. Gold. (Dont worry, its not worth as much as solid gold. Many ceramic manufacturers use a very thin etching of gold to coat the prints on their fine ceramic ware).