Trends Toward Surrealism in Contemporary Design

Furniture that looks like something else.  Wooden or metal furniture that resemble ropes and tassels.  The french particularly have a love for the rope tassel motif and have for ages.  John Dickinson did tables that appear to be covered with cloth and tied with robe all out of plaster, or his 3 legged stools with feet that might walk away at any moment.  Dickinson also did rocks piled into low tables also made of plaster.

a piece in the style of Dickinson featured in an article by Elle Decor  Magazine sold from our shop

Arthur Court designed his sconces cast in Aluminum to resemble tortoise shells they are mounted up right with lighting from behind. Serge Roche a 1930's &1940's French surrealist designer, created many pieces using the palm leaf motif.  Grouping these together with other trompe l'oeil items makes for a very unusual interior. Adding interest to interiors is a fun challenge.  Making use of the unusual and the unique takes an interior to something way beyond the usual.

A Plaster Chandelier

In our shop we try to set an example of using unusual items together.  Trying to get people to step out of the ordinary and to take a flight of fancy. The photo at the top is a grouping from our shop using some of these items.   Even small items like this old key bowl adds whimsy to a room.

Virginia Metalcrafters key bowl

summer time

It has been way hot this summer. Makes one think about cooling off.  For some strange reason we got on a ice bucket buying binge.  We had the Arthur Court Champagne Cooler Rabbit, looks like something out of the Danny Darko movie. This week we purchased 5 ice buckets.  We found a two Lucite ones one with ice cube shapes as a handle.  A Dansk Ice bucket made of teak. We had not realized how much these older Dansk pieces bring.  One like this listed on 1stdibs for $600.  Who would have know years ago.


The Lucite Ice Bucket below resembles the one we found.  It has a swivel lid. Another unusual ice bucket is brass with a Lucite handle and a mercury glass liner.  Another was a glass basket with bumps and lines and a metal handle.  It is interesting how some days you have runs on things both in the items you find, and the items you sell.  Another coincidence is when someone expresses an interest in an item. Out of the hundreds of items in a shop that item will immediately be of interest to a great number of other people.  When an item sells you will have several people come in wanting the same item.  Years ago we had a large fiber glass rhino head.  It was from a movie set.  We got it to get people talking about us.  The day we sold the Rhino head, 3 people came in wanting it, including an architect who came in to look at it to design a room around it.,  We never thought we'd ever sell that thing we just thought it would be a draw.