Lewis has been on the road

Yesterday Lewis delivered a piece, and he went shopping in West Virginia. Here is a photo of some of the pieces that he bought.

Where did parsons table come from?

Lewis and I were talking about parson's tables. They are so useful such clean designs. There are side tables, consoles, coffee tables, dining tables, inside and outside tables, but where were they originated. Did some parson make one for his home, thus the name parson's table? Well I just had to find out. So I googled parson's table in wikipedia. I found that it was designed in Paris, in the 1930's at The Parsons School of Design, hence the name Parsons Table. It was designed by Jean- Michel Frank. The table has had a life of it's own ever since. I just went around the shop to see how many parsons tables we had. We have at least ten. They all were different.

Piero Fornasetti

Lewis has given me the joyful task of discussing Fornasetti. He was born and lived most of his life in Milan Italy. He spent 2 years at an Art Academy there but was expelled for insubordination. I knew I liked that man! Creative people rarely fit into molds. His greatist inspiration was the face of the operatic soprano Lina Cavalieri, which he had found in a nineteenth century magazine. Over the years he drew over 500 images using her face. When asked why he continued to do so, he said that he really didn't know why that he had started doing so and had never stopped. It was the ultimate variation on a theme.

He had several shops where he made his wonderous masterpieces many were tromp l'oeils. Fornasetti's work was enhanced by his working relationship with Gio Ponti. He made wall paper, china, furniture, obelisk, mirrors etc.. His subjects included celestial beings, buildings and meaningful objects such as keys, watches, clocks. His furniture was often hidden behind a city scape or faux malachite. Some pieces looked like bookcases loaded with faux books and shelves. He let his imagination go wild and created some of the most magical pieces imaginable. To learn more about Fornasetti I can recommend the book, "Fornasetti, Conversation with Philippe Stark", by Brigitte Fitoussi.