Styling and photos by KS&D.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Vintage Hollywood Regency Lux
When we saw the Hermes orange hued silk damask covering the sensuous lines of this vintage Hollywood Regency sofa it seems we’d yet again found ourselves unable to resist temptation.
We’ve always had a thing for orange accessories from various throw pillows to an dusty orange velvet X-frame stool, but this conversation piece is the ultimate in vintage orange chic. The original 1960’s silk upholstery is in excellent condition and adds a major dose of that “Mad Men” inspired glamour so influential in design right now. The sexy rolled curve of the back is piled with cushions while the single cushion seat makes this showstopper as comfortable as a cloud.
Such an extravagant sofa called for a coffee table that could really hold its own and the eclectic vibe of this vintage Chinoiserie brass tray table featuring a bamboo detailed gallery along the edge seemed to fit the bill. More vintage brass, Italian Murano art glass, and gold gilt accessories increase the vignette’s warm golden glow. The oversized pillow is crafted from an antique tapestry depicting a flowering urn that echoes the urn pattern in the damask while the smaller accent pillow is striped silk taffeta, both are trimmed with a playful looped fringe passementerie.
Even the cabinet of curiosities seemed due for dressing up, now sporting a lavish bouquet of peacock feathers. The sofa does have one other trick up it’s sleeve but you’ll just have to check back soon to see for yourself!
Styling and photos by KS&D.
Styling and photos by KS&D.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Tuscan Villa Interiors
We’ve had Italian country house style on the brain since our recent post featuring a pair of local Jazz Age Mediterranean villas, for a look at the real thing here are some interiors from one of the loveliest Italian estates on the market today.
In the entrance vestibule an intricate ceiling of delicate neoclassical scrollwork presides over a space simply furnished with a spare mirror and matching coat rack. A console displaying a few well-chosen accessories and a marble topped center table holding a simple arrangement of hydrangea adorn the space.
In the next room a spectacular trellis motif entwined with climbing vines covers the walls while a charming pair of corner cabinets display colorful ceramic serving pieces. The geometric tiled floor is one design of many throughout the house.
This hall features a more ornate floor pattern and yet more climbing vines, here used to ornament rows of dramatic double columns that separate the space from the glassed solarium. Between the pairs of columns are placed trees in enormous tubs that also help define the space but keep it light and airy as the real leaves blend with the painted ones trailing the columns. Casual wicker chairs in the foreground are similar to those we noted in the 1920’s photo of the drawing room in the previous post.
A closer look into the solarium reveals the beautiful windows accented with blue stained glass that echoes the floor tile pattern. The comfortable looking upholstered furniture is slip covered in a cheerful blue and yellow chintz giving the space a homey lived-in feel.
An enchanting dining room is swathed in trompe l’oeil drapery swags similar to those we noted in the galleries of Albemarle House, and lined with upholstered banquets piled with cushions.
This grand salon is also awash in trompe l’oeil drapery that creates a rich backdrop for an eclectic mix of furnishings. An oversized check on the sofas and windows brings both a casual country air and a graphic contrast to the lavishly swaged walls and marbleized architecture, while four large Chinese figures and a pair of intricate stools add a hint of Chinoiserie to the mix. Finally a brilliant mass of sunflowers is perhaps the perfect finishing touch for any Tuscan country interior.
All photos via Sotheby’s Realty.
In the entrance vestibule an intricate ceiling of delicate neoclassical scrollwork presides over a space simply furnished with a spare mirror and matching coat rack. A console displaying a few well-chosen accessories and a marble topped center table holding a simple arrangement of hydrangea adorn the space.
In the next room a spectacular trellis motif entwined with climbing vines covers the walls while a charming pair of corner cabinets display colorful ceramic serving pieces. The geometric tiled floor is one design of many throughout the house.
This hall features a more ornate floor pattern and yet more climbing vines, here used to ornament rows of dramatic double columns that separate the space from the glassed solarium. Between the pairs of columns are placed trees in enormous tubs that also help define the space but keep it light and airy as the real leaves blend with the painted ones trailing the columns. Casual wicker chairs in the foreground are similar to those we noted in the 1920’s photo of the drawing room in the previous post.
A closer look into the solarium reveals the beautiful windows accented with blue stained glass that echoes the floor tile pattern. The comfortable looking upholstered furniture is slip covered in a cheerful blue and yellow chintz giving the space a homey lived-in feel.
An enchanting dining room is swathed in trompe l’oeil drapery swags similar to those we noted in the galleries of Albemarle House, and lined with upholstered banquets piled with cushions.
This grand salon is also awash in trompe l’oeil drapery that creates a rich backdrop for an eclectic mix of furnishings. An oversized check on the sofas and windows brings both a casual country air and a graphic contrast to the lavishly swaged walls and marbleized architecture, while four large Chinese figures and a pair of intricate stools add a hint of Chinoiserie to the mix. Finally a brilliant mass of sunflowers is perhaps the perfect finishing touch for any Tuscan country interior.
All photos via Sotheby’s Realty.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Designing A Staircase Gallery Wall
Creating a well-balanced gallery wall can be challenging but putting the display on the diagonal is an entirely different story.
This staircase is lined with a dramatic display of classical prints mixed with Mid-Century Modern art that forms an eclectic backdrop for a small sitting area.
The orderly composition is centered on a large print depicting ruins of the Roman Forum flanked by antique Italian reverse hand painted art glass wall panels of delicate classical design.
The traditional brown leather rolled arm sofa is dressed up with a trio of throw pillows in orange, teal, and yellow Chinese silk, a fun spring/ summer color scheme that adds a dose of 60’s chic. In another nod to Mid-Century style a collection of vintage Murano art glass bowls pop on the cocktail table like blossoms of color, while antique and vintage brass accessories lend a metallic note to the end tables.
Vignette photos and staging by KS&D.
Art and accessories available HERE.
This staircase is lined with a dramatic display of classical prints mixed with Mid-Century Modern art that forms an eclectic backdrop for a small sitting area.
The orderly composition is centered on a large print depicting ruins of the Roman Forum flanked by antique Italian reverse hand painted art glass wall panels of delicate classical design.
The traditional brown leather rolled arm sofa is dressed up with a trio of throw pillows in orange, teal, and yellow Chinese silk, a fun spring/ summer color scheme that adds a dose of 60’s chic. In another nod to Mid-Century style a collection of vintage Murano art glass bowls pop on the cocktail table like blossoms of color, while antique and vintage brass accessories lend a metallic note to the end tables.
Vignette photos and staging by KS&D.
Art and accessories available HERE.
Monday, April 2, 2012
A Unique Antique Boutique
Browse the most eclectic mix of unique antique and vintage home accessories from the comfort and convenience of home! Enhance the design of any interior with Knickerbocker’s carefully curated collection of American, European, Asian, and African fine and decorative arts. Our ever-changing inventory features an array of objects and artifacts from Victorian to Mid-Century Modern including lamps, sconces, art pottery, fine china, porcelain, crystal, art glass, prints, oil paintings, sculpture, folk art, primitives, nautical décor, and much more!
Click HERE to shop our newest arrivals now!
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Art History and Architecture on the Delaware Canal
The beautiful spring weather is perfect for exploring the canals and towpaths along the Delaware River. Last year we took a short stroll through a time-forgotten village in Upper Bucks County, this time we’re heading south to explore the history and architecture rich stretch between Centre Bridge and New Hope, Pennsylvania.
This pastoral complex of quintessential Bucks county fieldstone buildings makes up the historic Burgess Lea Farm. Built in the 18th century by Isaiah Paxson, a gentleman farmer, businessman, and partner in the company that built the bridge across the river in 1814 giving Centre Bridge its name. The farm is remarkably well preserved due to the fact that only two families owned it until 1978.
The large window on this stately stone Georgian once illuminated the studio of Edward Willis Redfield, the American Impressionist painter often credited with co-founding the New Hope Art Colony, as the group of artists who came to live and work along the river came to be known, when he moved to this house in 1898.
Redfield’s most famous work "The Burning of Center Bridge" was painted from memory to depict the dramatic night in 1923 when Isaiah Paxson’s original 112-year old wooden covered bridge was struck by lightening.
The rebuilt bridge as seen today connecting the village to the quaint town of Stockton, New Jersey, where the Stockton Inn immortalized in song by Broadway composers Rogers and Hart in the 1930’s was so popular with writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald their table was nicknamed the Algonquin Round Table after their famed New York City haunt.
Just north of the Redfield house an elegant formal garden guarded by lions lies along the canal.
Peaking out from the vegetation are the unmistakable salmon stucco walls and red tile roof of a 1920’s Mediterranean villa, a type more commonly associated with locales like Beverly Hills or Palm Beach than the banks of the Delaware River.
This is Playwicky, the Morris L. Cooke house designed in the 1920’s by renowned architect William Lawrence Bottomley. Cooke, who was appointed director of the Rural Electrification Administration by FDR, built the house for weekends in the country.
Topped by a picturesque combination chimney bell tower, the house also boasts the work of the master blacksmith Samuel Yellin.
One of the most charming features of this unique property has to be this delightful two-story octagonal garden tower retreat. Such fairy tale details make it easy to understand House and Garden’s description of Playwicki as the “playhouse of two traveled grownups”.
Next door to one unusual Jazz Age villa is oddly enough an even grander one. The Frederick L. Miller house was also designed in the 1920’s by Bottomley. A 1929 House and Garden article aptly titled “The House By The Canal” declared “Some of yesterday’s architecture and some from foreign lands are found in this country house…set against a background of woods, in a meadow through which flow the quiet waters of an old canal.”
Like something to be found along the shores of Lake Como, the house has been expanded and altered from its original design. Three sets of French doors for example now line the terrace where once a huge Palladian window added a curvilinear focal point to this long wing.
A 1926 photo of the nearly 40 foot long drawing room taken shortly after completion shows the original Palladian window looking out to the river. The large space was simply furnished with informal wicker and a comfortable upholstered wing chair and rolled arm sofa that speak to the casual country house vibe.
A 1927 image from The House Beautiful shows Bottomley’s original entrance before renovations. The simple arched doorway surmounted by a charmingly canopied wrought iron balcony was in keeping with the Italian farmhouse vernacular the architect originally intended. What look to be fruit trees planted close to the house again speak to the rustic farmhouse sensibility the estate once had.
The main façade is now far grander with a monumental entrance lording over a massive gravel forecourt transforming Bottomley’s Italian country farmhouse into an imposing mansion. While quiet a beautiful showplace one can’t help but wonder if a future owner might restore some of architects’ original scheme.
Flat-bottomed canal boats wait under the bridge behind the Centre Bridge Inn; an Inn has operated at this site for over two hundred years.
A cathedral-like alley of trees leading down to the river dramatically frames this elegant antique house of stucco over stone.
Tucked on the hillside just behind the white stucco house is this interesting structure with a huge multi-paned window that was no doubt once the studio of another local artist.
A classic Pennsylvania fieldstone farmhouse comfortably sited in a large clearing in the woods.
Yet another beautifully restored antique stone manor, this time situated on a tiny sliver of land between the canal and River Road. A tall trellis fence gives the place an air of mystery while lending privacy to the small but lavish garden.
At one end of the narrow garden sits this quaint slate roofed shed topped with a charming metal flower finial.
The American impressionist landscape painter William Langson Lathrop founded the New Hope Art Colony when he moved to this house at Phillips Mill in 1899. The early years of the twentieth century saw a cache of like-minded artists known as the Pennsylvania Impressionists flocking to join Lathrop and Redfield in capturing the local landscapes.
The Tow Path as painted by Lathrop who kept a boat to shuttle students along the canal from New Hope to his studio at Philips Mill.
Of course even with all the history and architecture to savor it’s impossible to stroll along the Delaware and not stop to appreciate the wonders of nature around you.
Photos 1-3, 5-11, 15-21, and 23 by KS&D.
Photo 12 via Library of Congress.
Photo 13 from The House Beautiful.
Photo 14 via Zillow more photos here.
This pastoral complex of quintessential Bucks county fieldstone buildings makes up the historic Burgess Lea Farm. Built in the 18th century by Isaiah Paxson, a gentleman farmer, businessman, and partner in the company that built the bridge across the river in 1814 giving Centre Bridge its name. The farm is remarkably well preserved due to the fact that only two families owned it until 1978.
The large window on this stately stone Georgian once illuminated the studio of Edward Willis Redfield, the American Impressionist painter often credited with co-founding the New Hope Art Colony, as the group of artists who came to live and work along the river came to be known, when he moved to this house in 1898.
Redfield’s most famous work "The Burning of Center Bridge" was painted from memory to depict the dramatic night in 1923 when Isaiah Paxson’s original 112-year old wooden covered bridge was struck by lightening.
The rebuilt bridge as seen today connecting the village to the quaint town of Stockton, New Jersey, where the Stockton Inn immortalized in song by Broadway composers Rogers and Hart in the 1930’s was so popular with writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald their table was nicknamed the Algonquin Round Table after their famed New York City haunt.
Just north of the Redfield house an elegant formal garden guarded by lions lies along the canal.
Peaking out from the vegetation are the unmistakable salmon stucco walls and red tile roof of a 1920’s Mediterranean villa, a type more commonly associated with locales like Beverly Hills or Palm Beach than the banks of the Delaware River.
This is Playwicky, the Morris L. Cooke house designed in the 1920’s by renowned architect William Lawrence Bottomley. Cooke, who was appointed director of the Rural Electrification Administration by FDR, built the house for weekends in the country.
Topped by a picturesque combination chimney bell tower, the house also boasts the work of the master blacksmith Samuel Yellin.
One of the most charming features of this unique property has to be this delightful two-story octagonal garden tower retreat. Such fairy tale details make it easy to understand House and Garden’s description of Playwicki as the “playhouse of two traveled grownups”.
Next door to one unusual Jazz Age villa is oddly enough an even grander one. The Frederick L. Miller house was also designed in the 1920’s by Bottomley. A 1929 House and Garden article aptly titled “The House By The Canal” declared “Some of yesterday’s architecture and some from foreign lands are found in this country house…set against a background of woods, in a meadow through which flow the quiet waters of an old canal.”
Like something to be found along the shores of Lake Como, the house has been expanded and altered from its original design. Three sets of French doors for example now line the terrace where once a huge Palladian window added a curvilinear focal point to this long wing.
A 1926 photo of the nearly 40 foot long drawing room taken shortly after completion shows the original Palladian window looking out to the river. The large space was simply furnished with informal wicker and a comfortable upholstered wing chair and rolled arm sofa that speak to the casual country house vibe.
A 1927 image from The House Beautiful shows Bottomley’s original entrance before renovations. The simple arched doorway surmounted by a charmingly canopied wrought iron balcony was in keeping with the Italian farmhouse vernacular the architect originally intended. What look to be fruit trees planted close to the house again speak to the rustic farmhouse sensibility the estate once had.
The main façade is now far grander with a monumental entrance lording over a massive gravel forecourt transforming Bottomley’s Italian country farmhouse into an imposing mansion. While quiet a beautiful showplace one can’t help but wonder if a future owner might restore some of architects’ original scheme.
Flat-bottomed canal boats wait under the bridge behind the Centre Bridge Inn; an Inn has operated at this site for over two hundred years.
A cathedral-like alley of trees leading down to the river dramatically frames this elegant antique house of stucco over stone.
Tucked on the hillside just behind the white stucco house is this interesting structure with a huge multi-paned window that was no doubt once the studio of another local artist.
A classic Pennsylvania fieldstone farmhouse comfortably sited in a large clearing in the woods.
Yet another beautifully restored antique stone manor, this time situated on a tiny sliver of land between the canal and River Road. A tall trellis fence gives the place an air of mystery while lending privacy to the small but lavish garden.
At one end of the narrow garden sits this quaint slate roofed shed topped with a charming metal flower finial.
The American impressionist landscape painter William Langson Lathrop founded the New Hope Art Colony when he moved to this house at Phillips Mill in 1899. The early years of the twentieth century saw a cache of like-minded artists known as the Pennsylvania Impressionists flocking to join Lathrop and Redfield in capturing the local landscapes.
The Tow Path as painted by Lathrop who kept a boat to shuttle students along the canal from New Hope to his studio at Philips Mill.
Of course even with all the history and architecture to savor it’s impossible to stroll along the Delaware and not stop to appreciate the wonders of nature around you.
Photos 1-3, 5-11, 15-21, and 23 by KS&D.
Photo 12 via Library of Congress.
Photo 13 from The House Beautiful.
Photo 14 via Zillow more photos here.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Treasure Trove
It took some coaxing but someone finally agreed to share her treasure trove...
Knickerbocker is pleased to announce the expansion of our antique and vintage costume and fashion jewelry collections! After all, the only thing more fun to accessorize than your home is yourself!
Aside from the glittering rhinestone earrings and sparkling semi-precious stone set brooches, don’t forget we offer a unique selection of jewel boxes to store your treasures.
Photos and styling by KS&D.
Knickerbocker is pleased to announce the expansion of our antique and vintage costume and fashion jewelry collections! After all, the only thing more fun to accessorize than your home is yourself!
Aside from the glittering rhinestone earrings and sparkling semi-precious stone set brooches, don’t forget we offer a unique selection of jewel boxes to store your treasures.
Photos and styling by KS&D.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Cabinet of Curiosities
The cabinet of curiosities - a place for wonders of nature and works of art.
A wondrous display of oddities and artifacts culled from the rare, unique, and beautiful. Arranged for invoking inspiration and thoughtful contemplation.
A rustic pair of antlers envelops this collection of sparkling gems and minerals interspersed with seashells, fine porcelains, and small sculptures.
Antique Chinese architectural carvings lend warmth and texture to a grouping of vases and figures of ancient Chinese deities draped in antique black jade necklaces. Natural elements include a copper vessel of dried seedpods, feathers, and a scattering of shells.
Light from a vintage porcelain lamp casts a soft golden glow on the scene and more unique pieces of folk art and art glass.
Photos and styling by KS&D.
A wondrous display of oddities and artifacts culled from the rare, unique, and beautiful. Arranged for invoking inspiration and thoughtful contemplation.
A rustic pair of antlers envelops this collection of sparkling gems and minerals interspersed with seashells, fine porcelains, and small sculptures.
Antique Chinese architectural carvings lend warmth and texture to a grouping of vases and figures of ancient Chinese deities draped in antique black jade necklaces. Natural elements include a copper vessel of dried seedpods, feathers, and a scattering of shells.
Light from a vintage porcelain lamp casts a soft golden glow on the scene and more unique pieces of folk art and art glass.
Photos and styling by KS&D.
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