Vintage danish design part 1

Ax chair, designed by Peter Hvidt and Orla Molgaard Nielsen. Rare version with leather back and seat.

vintage tourjacket part 1

Recently on ebay, this pretty spectaculair vintage tourjacket. Never seen this one before... and the embroidery looks to be original, although not in super good condition. It didn't sell (asking price was 800 bucks).

The Lemurians

Based in California the Lemurian Order is a fellowship devoted to teachings based on ancient wisdom they trace back to civilizations on the lost continents of Mu and Atlantis. The order was founded in 1936.

The surprising thing about the fellowship is their contribution to modern design after WWII. They concentrated primarily on woodwork. Launching first a line of dinnerware with plates, bowls, salad servers and beakers, created from oil finished walnut and mahogany (often featured in magazines like Arts & Architecture). Later this evolved to custom work for designers and architects, involving large mosaic wall plaques, mobiles and table lamps. By the early 60's this was so popular that they established a line of architectural hardware (mostly door handles, push plates, etc). By the late 70's demand for their products ebbed and production ceased.

First picture is a period ad and picture 2 is a display of door pulls and handles.

The real Mad Men

A BBC documentary from 1967 featuring Young & Rubicam creative director Steve Frankfurt. Frankfurt was at the time the youngest executive in advertising and also one of the first to use the writer/art director team.

Dutch architecture part 1

The Hamburger House in Noordwijk, designed by Gerrit Rietveld and built in 1959.

cool door!

Found this nice door in Arona, Italy. From the 60's or 70's...

Dansk wine cooler

And we're even happier with this: wine cooler designed by Jens Quistgaard for Dansk. This is an original version from the 50's with the orange liner (later versions had black liners and were made in Malaysia). These are hard to find here in the Netherlands!

Elephant

New addition to the Vintage collection: original wooden elephant from the 50's designed and produced by Kay Bojesen.

Even more books

I love buying books..

Books, books, books....

Recent book buys.

Ludic modernismn in Belgium

This weekend we went to the exhibition "Ludic modernism in Belgium" in the Atomium in Brussels. That was a two for one because I had never been to the Atomium before as well. The exhibition was nice (a bit small) and the term "ludic modernism" was again a first for me. Never heard that one before...

One of my favorites was the chair designed by Alfred Hendrickx for airport Zaventem (see picure). And an overview of atomic shaped doorknobs! Very cool. Bought the catalogue (again a bit small) that has a nice overview of 50's/60's Belgian modernism. I noticed quite some interesting architecture. Makes me wonder what hidden modern gems are out there in Belgium...

Book tip

Graphic design for the swiss chemical company Geigy from 1940 to 1970. A must have for the graphic designer...

Keep it in the family

A few illustrations created by my father (Freek van Vliet). He worked for an advertising agency, doing commercial advertising work. Also, he created a lot of book illustrations throughout his career (from the 50's to his death in 1989). These are just a few of those illustrations (from the 60's and 70's)...

Deadly Dames

These are just a few of the 600 + paperback covers created by Robert Maguire in his long career which spanned 5 decades. He is one my favorite (if not THE favorite) paperback artists from the golden age (50's/60's). One of my alltime favorite Maguire covers is "dead, man, dead" (great title also).

Check out the great new book "Dames, dolls & gun molls" by Jim Silke, Illustration magazine no. 3 (with an almost complete listing of all his covers) and the great website about Maguire run by his daughter (www.ramaguirecoverart.com).

The Hunter

You can't go wrong with an opening like this...

Richard Stark's Parker-The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke.

Rietveld house for sale

A unique opportunity to own a house designed by Hollands most famous architect. For sale is the "Blaha" house, designed by Gerrit Rietveld and built in 1957. If you have an extra 1.375.000,00 euros it could be yours...

Check it out here: www.rietveldhuisbest.nl