Cincinnati Concours D'Elegance 2011

This past Sunday was Cincinnati's 34th Annual Concours D'Elegance, a world class exhibition of motoring excellence benefiting The Arthritis Foundation and Children with Juvenile Arthritis. The show takes place in the formal gardens of Ault Park and features over 200 collector cars spanning almost the entire history of automobiles. This year’s special exhibit featured Ferrari's and Fire Engines, so appropriately I have some tasty examples of Mid Century Ferrari's up front followed by a few other fine other gems I saw at the show. 

1956 Ferrari 410 Super America

 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Drogo Coupe

1959 Ferrari 250 Cabriolet (Series 1)


 

1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 

1967 Ferrari 330 GTC

1962 Jaguar E-Type Roadster



1963 Studebaker Lark Wagonnaire



Late 60's Fiat Dino 5400



1958 Porsche 356 Speedster

Late 50's Porsche 356 Speedster

Eames Armshell Restoration Project

A little renewal has been in order for awhile, not just the blog, yet also the latest addition to our household, this Greige Eames Armshell with original lounge H-base.  A byproduct of a facebook giveaway, this little guy was traded for a couple of other pieces we were looking to sell, win and win.

Initially it looked as if I might have got the bad end of the trade, the chair was a mess.  It had a huge rust stain or something on the seat, the fiberglass was gritty, and the base was rusty, all probably from years of being outside.  With a little resilience and persuasion to my wife (still can hear her echos of "We're not taking that home!") it was soon in the back of the wagon and on the way home. 

Now's the point where I point to where credit is due.  Starting with the Brick House's DIY Eames Restoration post, I followed pretty much the same steps taken to restore it to original beauty.  One of the unique characteristics of this chair to me was the rusty lounge base, so I ended up stripping, sanding and repainting the base in black.  Otherwise I left the original shock pads on and sanded, sanded, and then sanded some more. 

Fast forward to completion and oh my what a difference.  I ended putting several coats of the Penetrol to get the shiny finish, being patient for the oil based product to dry and air out a bit was necessity.

I'm really digging the low lounge base, we have one rocker and the rest 'normal' H or X bases in our Field of Eames living room.  Sitting low, as demonstrated by my offspring scale figure, propping my feet up on our sectional sofa ottoman has never felt more appropriate.  Be sure to also check another great very thorough Eames restoration post that recently was put up by friends over at Plastolux.  Someday I would like to do the Eames color wheel  of side shells around our dining table. 

Doesn't it look right at home?

MCM Zenith Console Manual

Last fall I scored a super awesome mid century Zenith stereo console. Since then I received a lot of great feedback and even stories from others around the country that have found the same piece. Recently a few requests have been floating around for a manual. Luckily the original one for our unit is still tucked in the album niche and now it's here for anyone who needs it. The full PDF can now be found here, cheers!

Thrift Store Score - Homecrest Siesta Chaise

The other night I got a text from my mother that went something like: "Stopped by our Goodwill today, they had a wire chaise like your outdoor chair set." She was referring to our collection of Homecrest wire chairs in our back yard. After an anxious phone call later, she agreed to stop by the next day, and by that evening we had our long hunted Homecrest Siesta chaise and our next furniture restoration project. I knew just the spot in our solarium for it to reside.

I don't know how hard these are to find, but I've been looking for over 5 years for one to fill in our collection. Beyond looking killer, this chair is SUPER comfortable, I'm talking 'did I just fall asleep for a couple hours?' comfy. Like our other Homecrest chairs, this one swivels has an adjustable spring loaded mechanism, ours is seized with paint. Sandblasting, priming and powdercoating will be required before we endeavour in some custom made covers. Fabric is already on my mind, how sweet would this look in some Girard Millerstripe?

Time to RSVP Your Miller Residence Tour

photo courtesy of IMA

Sometimes, it has been said, the best things in life come in threes. In 1953, the combination of Eero Saarinen, Dan Kiley, and Alexander Girard created one of the finest examples of residential modernism, the Miller House. Debuting for public touring starting May 10, the house will be available to the public after several years of meticulous care by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. There is no doubt the house, interiors, and its surrounding gardens represent the epitome of Mid Century Modernism at its best.

photo courtesy of IMA

I was fortunate enough to tour the house last spring along with other bloggers on the now legendary Columbus blogger tour. From the geometric landscape to the sunken conversation pit to the atomic awesome thoroughness of the house, there's no doubt a tour will rock you to your modern soul. If you're local, it's less than 2 hours away, there are no excuses. CF3 is currently setting up their group tour set for mid July. For more info, be sure to visit the Columbus Indiana website for more info and to book a scheduled tour now.

photo courtesy of IMA

Thrift Store Score - Art Glass & Beyond

One of the great things about collecting is the surprise finds that lead down collection roads you had never noticed. One of the roads we've recently discovered is the world of modern art glass. It's one of those things that are surprising in how little you actually know about all things modern. I've always been a fan of Chihuly, had been familiar with Blenko, but until recently have come to know names such as Murano, Fenton, and Viking.
I could say it all started with the piece to the left, my recent $4 thrift store score, but it really goes back to another thrift store score of a nice large Polish Art Glass piece found almost 2 years ago. This 8" Turquoise bowl sat lonely on the bottom shelf for weeks, I walked by it multiple times, referred Wendy to stop by and look, then finally without warning, it jumped off the shelf into my hand. I mean how can you resist a hefty colorful piece?

After the thrift purchase and some online research I was hooked, we needed to build our collection some so we headed up to Waynesville Antique Mall (be sure to check them out on Facebook) and purchased a few more pieces. I was shocked at the variety and selection we found of modern art glass there. This gray vase stands as the anomaly to our small collection.

Another Waynesville Antique Mall purchase. The glass with the bubbles makes me a little bubbley myself.

Green is our default house color, we had to make sure to keep with the rhyme scheme. This too was purchased at Waynesville Antique Mall.

And last but not least is the latest entrant into the collection. I think this piece might be real Murano, I've understood that the gold flecking was a trademark move by Murano makers. That with the spiraling air bubbles leave no doubt in the craftsmanship and work that went into this little piece. This was our lone purchase at the 20th Century Show this year. Be sure to check out some more photos from the show on our Facebook Page.