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If you want an authentic Aalto vase, you can go to aalto.com and buy one of these for $115.
Or you can go to my local Goodwill and pick one up for $3.49, as I did a few minutes ago.
A note about my local Goodwill: It really is local. It's in the same shopping center where my office is, and I visit a couple times a day. On average, I hit a good score maybe once a month. The last one was the pair of Ostervig chairs, and before that it was a three-piece lot of Nambe ware.
We have added the awesome The Mid-Century Modernist to our blogroll. A taste or two:
Here's an appealing slide show featuring a bi-coastal architect who furnished a pair of city homes in full-tilt mid-century modern style, in San Francisco and New York. Click the pic to view the show.
The rest of the room isn't bad, either.
Eames Hack
Okay, this is just...weird.
Reside - Mid-Century Modern Furniture Boston
If you're lucky enough to live in Boston, stop by and check out Reside in person. Otherwise, flip through the offerings on their web site. Some very nice pieces, with good descriptions and pricing, so that even if you can't visit, you can at least learn something.
Rago Arts and Auction Center | Results | 2007
Especially for folks new to the mid-century modern world, and even for those somewhat knowledgeable, figuring out what something looks like from a written description, or what something is actually worth, may prove difficult. One way to increase your knowledge is to have in one hand the catalog of a good auction house holding a mid-century sale, and in the other hand, a "prices realized" report.
Or, in this day and age, you can turn to the internet and get it all in one place.
Click the lot numbers on the left of each entry for gorgeous pictures of each sale item.
The first-ever retrospective exhibition of architect Eero Saarinen's remarkable career is on view at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills through March 30.Cranbrook was pretty much ground zero for the American mid-century modern movement. It was here, as instructors, that Saarinen and Charles Eames hatched the ur-designs that would re-shape and re-invent the interiors - and exteriors - of America's homes.
If you live anywhere near Windsor, this would be worth a trip to see.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a Mid-Century Modern home? Why not rent one for a vacation and find out?
Rojos House - 3 Bdr Mid Century House - Vacation Rentals
For every Eichler owner who has no idea what they are living in, and redoes the interior in 19th century New England cottage, there is an owner who knows exactly what he has, how luckyhe is, and isn't shy about saying so, loudly and often.
The Official Predicta Television Site!
No well-dressed up-to-the-minute mid-century modern interior was complete without a Philco Predicta showing the Future Is Now for the anything-but-boobish-tube.
Only problem was the electronics weren't very futuristic at all. Today, though, you can have your electronic cake and eat it, too, with these great updated reproductions of the original Philco gem stuffed with today's latest tele-viewing technology.
No, you won't be able to see the original I Love Lucy shows. On second thought, why not? I'm sure you can watch Nick on these just as easily as the latest flat-screen wall-eater. (Thanks to Mike Hendrix!)
Eames Lounge Chair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman, correctly titled Eames Lounge (670) and Ottoman (671) were released in 1956 after years of development by designers Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller furniture company. It was the first chair the Eames designed for a high-end market. These furnishings are made of molded plywood and leather. Examples of these furnishings are part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.The rest of the wiki will tell you pretty much everything there is to know about the most famous chair to come out of the mid-century modern design era.
George Nelson: Medalists: Inspiration: AIGA
An excellent bio, with pics, of George Nelson, one of the giants of mid-century design. The pics lean toward Nelson's graphic arts work, especially his fabric design.
Kaufmann House - Richard Neutra - Christie’s - Architecture - New York Times
PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Oct. 30 — The Kaufmann House, a 1946 glass, steel and stone landmark built on the edge of this desert town by the architect Richard Neutra, has twice been at the vanguard of new movements in architecture — helping to shape postwar Modernism and later, as a result of a painstaking restoration in the mid-1990s, spurring a revived interest in mid-20th-century homes.Don't miss the NYT slideshow: (Click the image).
Yes, you can still find them: Mid-Century Modern Homes.
DANISH.COM: Best of Breed Danish Furniture Designers - Pioneers
Kurt Østervig(b. 1912, d. 1986)Why bring up Kurt Ostervig? He's not the best known of the Scandinavian designers - Wegner or Henningsen or Jacobsen would probably fight it out for that honor. But he made beautiful furniture of the highest quality, and he does have a solid reputation among those MCM fans who favor beautiful wood shaped with both genius and loving care.
Kurt Østervig started his career as a ship building engineer at Odense Stålskibsværft. He was later hired as a furniture designer by E. Knudsen's Design Studio, one of the leading furniture producers 1930s & 40s.
He became a freelance furniture designer in 1947 working with some of the leading Scandinavian furniture manufacturers of his time.
Østervig?s constant search for new challenges resulted in many original design solutions for furniture used in rest homes, ships, hotels, and movie theaters. He was a master at combining oak with leather and his detailed and perfectly executed drawings were looked upon as works of art.
In the 1960s, one of Kurt Østervig's designs was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The Mid-Century Modernist: Mid-Century Modern and Rustic Can Get Along Just Fine
What a great photospread!
Here is a great piece on mid-century design principles updated for the New Green World. If you thought MCM was, well, so last-millennium, think again:
Noble Home: Mid-Century Modern Green Prefab (TreeHugger)
