Mid-Century Modern Brass - Lighting, Candlesticks and Objects

For some reason, brass has always had a pretty negative connotation for me in terms of decorating.  I’m not sure why this is, because it has a rich history--lovely brass pulls on 18th-century furniture, ornate hardware from the Aesthetic Movement and even brass beds all come to mind.  The swanky ‘70s designs of Gabriella Crespi and Paul Evans?  All good. 

These days, however, I am cursed with some ghastly brass lighting fixtures that came with my house when I bought it--you know, the ones from the 1980s that are sort of formal, pseudo-Georgian, living-in-Colonial-Williamsburg, brass-and-glass affairs that are just not to my taste.  And I’m not against brass, in fact, I am looking for some cool mid-century brass fixtures to replace them.

I need ceiling fixtures, so naturally all I have found is table lamps that are to my liking. 

An aside:  Mid-century lighting seems to suffer from a serious dearth of solid attributions.  In my search for more information on these pierced brass lamps, I generally come across three names:

I sometimes see any brass lighting pierced with tiny holes very optimistically attributed to Paavo Tynell, the Finnish designer of some rather splendid chandeliers and other fixtures.  I’d love to think that was true, but I do not think this is right.

The other name often bandied about is that of Gerald Thurston, a designer who worked for Lightolier.  Some of his designs are certainly well-documented through Lightolier advertisements and catalogues, but again, if it is pierced brass, his name gets thrown out there. 

Gaetano Sciolari? If it is chrome or brass and has a swank vibe to it, it must be Sciolari, right?  As with Tynell and Thurston, the designer’s name becomes an adjective more than an actual attribution and simply helps to quickly identify the overall style and look of a piece. 

I like mid-century brass items of all sorts, such as these Swedish brass candlesticks by Ystad Metall.

And some designed by Jens Quistgaard for Dansk:

And how about some brutal brass?  Curtis Jere (not an actual person, but a composite name of the two designers) created many brass wall sculptures and others emulated their style.  The piece below is not by Jere, but signed and dated 1972.

Even cheeseball brass from Home Interiors can look pretty good in (very!) small doses.

Just as I was getting ready to post this, Apartment Therapy posted about brass lighting--read about it here. 


© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg

Double Exposure - Panoramic Photo Tricks

In my never-ending quest for vintage panoramic photos, I sometimes come across ‘trick’ photos where there seem to be twins at either end of the photo.  Is it twins, or is it the same person?

Manor-Millersville High School (Pa.), class photo in Washington DC, June 5, 1947, photo by Central Photo

I recently found a double-double exposure with real twins at either end of the group photo!

This trick is possible because of the way a panoramic photo is shot.  The camera, set up on a rotating clockwork, starts on one end of the group of people and slowly pans from left to right.

Here are the blonde twins on the left...

And again on the right!

So in this case the blonde twins pose on the left and once the camera moves to the right and they are out of the shot, they duck down and run behind the people who are standing and run to the other end of the shot where they pose and appear again on the right.  

You can see a great video of how this is achieved on the Library of Congress website here.  They call this double exposure a ‘pizza run’ but there doesn’t seem to be any set name for it (or reason it’s called a pizza run). 

© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg

Paul McCobb Dinnerware Designs for Jackson China - Contempri and Restaurant Ware

Paul McCobb has always been a favorite designer of mine.  His furniture typified American post-war style and was a relatively affordable way for a wide audience to decorate their home in a modern way.  The Planner Group furniture still looks fresh today (at least, it looks pretty good in my dining room). 

McCobb’s dinnerware designs for Jackson China get less attention than the furniture, but they have a lot of merit.  Produced from 1959 into the mid 1960s, the Contempri line consists of a full range of dinner and tea wares, all with a white ceramic body finely molded in simple lines (there was glassware, too).  The pieces were left white or decorated with a solid color or one of many brightly colored patterns.  Made in Japan, these pieces are clearly marked with McCobb’s signature on the underside.

Restaurant ware small bowl for Jackson China on the left, Contempri on the right

The Contempri (right) is much thinner and lighter than the restaurant ware.

Maybe I’m just a klutz, but I rather prefer the commercial version of these Contempri designs that Jackson China produced.  The heavier ‘restaurant ware’ pieces, made in Falls Creek, Pennsylvania, are practically indestructible and though the lines of each piece are not quite as crisp, they are a nice choice for everyday.  I like dishes I don’t have to be afraid to use!  I only have a few pieces, so I am definitely on the hunt for more.

Mark on the restaurant ware pieces

You can find a nice group of images of McCobb’s designs for Jackson collected on modish.net here.

Paul McCobb Planner Group cabinet, 1950s

Sometimes I have McCobb pieces in my Etsy shop--you can check here.

© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg

William Henry Jackson Photochroms - Photography of the American West

WH Jackson, Midway Point, Monterey, California

Lately I am fascinated by the works of American photographer William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), who was renowned for documenting the expansion of the West.  I have found a couple of his images taken on the Pacific coast--this one is Midway Point in Monterey, California.

WH Jackson, Crow in feather headdress, Montana, late 19th century.  See more here.

After fighting in the Civil War, Jackson traveled extensively throughout the American West and photographed the natural wonders he saw there as part of the US Government Surveys. His 1870s images along the Yellowstone River were instrumental in persuading Congress to make Yellowstone the first National Park in 1872.

WH Jackson, The Cleveland Arcade, Library of Congress collection

Jackson traveled all over the United States and around the globe, documenting cities, people and landscapes of all sorts.  He worked for several railroad companies and shot the locomotives that became emblematic of the push west.  Architect Daniel Burnham hired Jackson to document the buildings of Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition before it was razed.  These were published as Jackson’s Famous Pictures of the World’s Fair--you can see them all on the Ball State University website.

WH Jackson, Administration Building, World's Columbian Exposition, c. 1894.

In 1897, after capturing the American landscape for more than 25 years, Jackson sold his extensive archive of negatives to the Detroit Photographic Company and joined the firm. By 1906, the firm changed its name to the Detroit Publishing Company and used Jackson’s negatives to produce countless color postcards. Jackson’s archive of negatives was eventually purchased by Henry Ford and is now divided between the Colorado Historical Society and the Library of Congress. 

WH Jackson, Castle Rock, Santa Barbara, California

The images I have are photochroms, color lithographs made from a black and white photographic negative (the process originated in Switzerland, hence the spelling; it is also sometimes spelled ‘photochrome’).  At least four color plates are used in the process, resulting in a rich, vibrant image. The printed surface has some shine to it, it is not matte like a print in a book.

These photochroms were printed by the Detroit Photographic Company and are generally marked on both the print and mat. 

I'm always looking for more of these!  I especially like California image or other scenes at the beach.


© All text and images are copyright of Jeni Sandberg, except where noted