the Great Marcello Fantoni

Marcello Fantoni 1915-  received a master's in art in 1934, started working as a ceramist in 1937 and established the Fantoni Ceramic Studio winning awards at the Florentine Arts and Craft Exhibit in 1937.  During WWII he worked with the resistance.  After the war in he began to work with renewed vigor that led him to having over 50 collaborators in his shop a decade later.  Many of these became famous in their own right.

His work was in line with contemporary trend in the artistic world using innovative handling of materials, glazing and his colors.  His works were picked up by collectors of modern design and held among the collections in some of the most important museums all around the world.


  He worked in metal as well as in Ceramics.  iihenext decade the impressive size of over fifty collaborators

Edward J Wormley and Dunbar Mid Twentieth Century Design

book on Edward Wormley

 In 1950 Chicago Merchandise Mart joined with the Museum of Modern Art to sponsor the GOOD DESIGN exhibition.  Edward J Wormley, who designed for the Dunbar Furniture Company, became an icon in American design and furniture history.  This annual show was designed to commend selected home furnishings for their “excellent appearance and progressive performance.”  Over a three year period Wormley's designs for Dunbar dominated the exhibition collecting 30 awards for their "Good Designs".

set of Wormley slipper chairs original fabric sold from our shop

It was in 1931 that Wormley, a twenty three year old with fresh ideas, joined up with Dunbar Furniture.  Wormley, with a passion for quality and an eye for detail, inspired global perspective and introduced world-class design philosophies into the American home furnishing. The U. S. had been lagging behind the Europeans in forward thinking for functional furnishing for the modern home. He up dated how American Interiors should feel, with his clean lines a passion for details.  Dunbar was the perfect vehicle for his pieces and his forward thinking.  He is known for reinterpreting historical and classical designs into clean modern designs, thus creating the new classics.  There was a retrospective of his work in 1997, two years after his death, bringing renewed interest to his designs.  Dunbar has even began to reissue some of his designs.

magazine stand by Wormley for Dunbar

Edward Wormley

Edward Wormley - American, 1907 - 1995

“Modernism means freedom—freedom to mix, to choose, to change, to embrace the new but to hold fast to what is good.”

We can be forever grateful to Wormley and to Dunbar for his thoughtful modern designs.

Ico Parisi

http://www.1stdibs.com/furniture_item_detail.php?id=549509

It takes getting in new pieces by mid twentieth century designers for me to try to find out about the designers.  We found a table by Ico Parisi, recently.  So now for the investigating.  Ico Parisi was born in 1916 and is still alive.  He considered himself a Renaissance man.  He was an architect, a furniture designer, a painter, and a photographer.  He did not want to be know just as any one of these things, but for all of his accomplishments.

A larger version of the table we found this one listed by Lampedo

He met Luisa Aiani, a pupil of Gio Ponti, and married her.  Together they were an unbeatable design team. They formed La Ruota, a studio specialized in interior design where they drew up designs for accessories as well as furniture. Their furniture was cutting edge to fit into the new modern buildings and homes of the period, and today still seems to have that cutting edge quality.

A rare "Taormina" chest of drawers by Luisa & Ico Parisi for MIM presented by Lampedo

        The Kilmarnock, shop, Lewis Trimble Decorative Arts and Antiques, made the pages of Architectural Digest with a lamp that they sold last year to Adam Levine.  It is seen twice in the magazine on pages 126, and on 128, as well as having credit given on the sources page 148.  This is not the first time that something purchased from Lewis Trimble has been in a National Magazine.  Elle Decor showed a table in one of their articles in a room designed by Nate Berkus, Oprah's Designer.  Lewis Trimble has sold to other famous designers including Micheal Smith, who worked with the Obamas in the White House, and Kelly Wearstler.

Table seen in Elle Decor

   
  Recently because of their affiliation with the prominent website 1stdibs, they have sold a chandelier to princess Rema of Saudi Arabia, a Murano Chandelier to hang in a glass dome in Paris, a round Italian Deco Table to Todd's Shoes' new store in Hong Kong, and a table for display to designer Kate Spade.  It is truly amazing that a shop in the Norther Neck of Virginia can sell internationally.

Table that went to Todd's Shoes Hong Kong

          A little over two years ago with the decline in the economy, Lewis and Leigh made the critical decision to change from being an Antique Mall to becoming a single shop specializing in architect designed pieces of the 20th century.  With the down grade in the economy they realized that they could find items  for resale more reasonably.  At the same time their dealers were not selling well and dropping out of the Antique Mall.  Over a period of time they began to do away with all but one of their dealers, becoming one large shop.  The dealer who shares their shop is Maurice Beane, of Richmond VA, who specializes in Vintage branded goods.  There is a boutique area within the shop devoted to vintage goods such as Gucci, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Ferragamo, among others.  They like to show case works of local craftsmen like the sculptors Curtis Norton, and Maurice Beane, furniture by Christopher Trimble, and jewelry by goldsmith, Stephen Redd.  They feature art work by Donald Lewis Jr. of Virginia Beach, who is known for his luminous landscapes of Virginia, and work by his sister Leigh Lewis Trimble, who has been painting  landscapes and still lifes for over 25 years, and designs by Bradley Stephens, of Irvington VA.  Lewis Trimble is also a budding artist in his own right having studied under Ray Kass at Virginia Tech.

chandelier to be hung in a glass dome Paris

          Kilmarnock can be proud to say that the only two shops on the website 1stdibs, in Virginia, are in their tiny town.  Comer & Co joined Lewis Trimble on 1stdibs about two years ago.  They since have opened a second shop in Georgetown.  Shopping for Antiques in The Northern Neck of Virginia has become a must do.  Trimbles Tavern in White Stone run by Chris Trimble has some of best 18th and 19th century antiques in Virginia as well as Civil War items and his custom made furniture.  Other shops in the area worthy of mention are the Kilmarnock Antique Gallery, Epping Forest Antiques, and Calico Jack's in Lively just up the road from Kilmarnock.