Any Way That You Want Me

Well, 2013 hasn't treated us much better, so we've consoled ourselves by procuring one of the most infuriatingly elusive items on our design wantlist. In 1966, Emma Gismondi Schweinberger created the Dedalino (pencil holder), Dedalo (umbrella stand) and Dedalotto (vase) trio for Artemide. Our pals Justin and Max hooked us up with a Dedalo and three MOS Dedalinos, respectively, a few years back, but scoring a damn Dedalotto seemed virtually impossible. Fortunately, that situation's now been remedied!

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

Our apologies in advance, dear readers: due to the circumstances detailed in our preceding entry, we found ourselves going a little overboard this year. We usually don't indulge so heavily (sure) in holiday gift-giving, but it seemed completely justifiable in 2012. We assure you that we'll do our best to curb our conspicuous consumption from now on!
 

In appreciation of her infinite patience, I'd promised Valery that I'd get her an original Saarinen side table once I was done with grad school and had a real job. Voila! It's an early example with a pre-zip-code Knoll label and a base that seems to weigh fifty pounds!

Here's a close up of the tag. It sure is purty!

I'm the first to admit that I'm impossible to shop for, but Valery outdid herself this year by convincing our Danish pal, Jannie, to sell us the gigantic, quizzical bird in the middle. We'd spied this eleven inch (!!!) fledgling on Flickr two years ago—and it sent us searching everywhere with no results. A big thank you is due to both Valery and Jannie! 

Never one to stand still, Valery tracked down the nubby guy on the right and also included him as one of my gifts. Does anyone know who's responsible for designing and/or producing these vintage birds? All three are marked Denmark and have a distinctive double axe insignia. We'd love to solve this mystery!

Our Laurel lamp is included for scale.

We've already blogged about the six vintage Georges Briard Your Pickled Personality glasses we found for $12 back in 2009. We thought we'd scored the entire run in one fell swoop—that is until our Instagram buddy, Holly, emailed us that she'd found a set that included two glasses we'd never seen before. After months of (persistent needling) friendly emails, Valery got Holly to part with 'em just in time for the holidays. A big thank you to you both!

We should also note that this is the only complete set we've been able to find anywhere. Although not nearly as well known as Briard's Name Your Poison series, we'd argue that the Your Pickled Personality set is infinitely more scarce and desirable—poking fun at mental illness was likely never a popular selling point. Like the aforementioned, this series was also available in two sizes.

It was an Op Art Christmas: Valery lucked out and received the large (7") Abraham Palatnik cat she'd been looking for forever, as well as the jumbo (18" across) Plattan tray designed by Barbro Tryberg. Our first Alexander Girard figure was a present mysteriously left behind by Santa. Hmmm.

A deranged ceramic figure, a Nutty Mad, Martian Finks and a mint Popsie witch still in its original box? Yes! All of these presents ended up stuffed in my stocking (with care).

Similarly, some gifts materialized in Valery's stocking overnight. A Sof' Boy tote bag produced by PressPop and a first printing of William Pene Du Bois' book, Pretty Pretty Peggy Moffitt—a children's tale about the inimitable 60s icon.

Our buddy, Mike, is the king of funneling quality goods into GG&S HQ, and Christmas is always his favorite excuse. This year he lavished us with punk 45s by the Sods, Chronics, Mollesters, Art Attacks and Menace. As if that wasn't enough, an original glow-in-the-dark Sick Cycle model by Lindberg (1971) and a copy of Myron Kosloff's Female Tyrant (1966) (with its handsome Eric Stanton cover) rounded out the package. Thanks again, Mike!

Mike also visited us earlier this year and left the above item behind as an early Christmas gift for Valery: an original Spindel planter by Willy Guhl for Eternit. Don't worry, this 38 inch beast permanently resides outside—along with its stout companion, pictured here. Both of 'em demand a new paint job and proper plantings.

GG&S HQ was further beautified by Valery's folks who surprised us with a large George Nelson Criss Cross saucer. As you read this, we should be in the middle of hanging this light fixture in our master bedroom. A big thank you is in order to both Randy and Lee!

Contrary to the rest of the year, no real complaints about this portion of 2012! 

Into The Future

By all accounts, 2012 should've been a great year: it was our first full year as a married couple, grad school wrapped up in April and I'd even landed my first professional appointment as an archivist a few months prior. Unfortunately, celebration plans were nixed at the start, as Valery was laid off from her job as a creative director—after a mere twelve years of climbing the ladder at our local arts & entertainment weekly. So much for loyalty.

In July, my father passed away—an occurrence I've barely acknowledged, on this blog or elsewhere, mostly as a way to avoid its affirmation. After eight years of battling cancer, he decided to forgo his diminishing treatments, opting instead to exit on his own terms: at home and surrounded by his family. In one final unapologetic gesture, he successfully shooed away the priest my mom brought over to administer last rites. Even as he was nearing the end at age 86, my old man remained consistent—his example will always be an inspiration.

November delivered the diagnosis that Valery's dad also has cancer. He's already preparing to undergo some intensive treatments, so we're cautiously optimistic about his health. We really don't have much of a choice.

Last month, Valery underwent a lumpectomy, and the week spent waiting to hear back from the surgeon was unsurpassed torture—on December 21st, the results came back negative (thankfully)! Consequently, after extending a heartfelt fuck you to the ancient Mayans, we were finally able to enjoy our holidays. Valery's still recuperating, but her continued health is the only thing I'm really grateful for this year. 

We hope this explains why GG&S has been relatively inactive over the past few months. Despite the fact that 2012 seemed genuinely apocalyptic, we're confident that better things are in store for us all in the coming year. All the best to you and yours!

GG&S 

Lest We Forget

We just got back from spending Christmas with our family and we realized that we forgot to wish everyone a festive Yuletide holiday! Here's wishing you the best and we hope to see you again next year!!

GG&S

Get Stuffed

In honor of Small Business Saturday, our handmade mod Naugahyde pillows are on sale at 20% off, now through December 15. Please buy handmade and support your local businesses this holiday season! You can access our design shop by clicking here. Thank you! 

Prints and zipper pouches are also available.

For Your Pleasure

Hey pals, looks like this will likely be our last image dump, as the kind folks at Instagram have opted to make individual web profiles available via the internet. In case you're one of the many (few) who've been missing our infrequent blog updates, you can dull the pain by following us via our robust photostream located right here.

Time Of The Season

Seeing the seasons change in the South is one of our favorite annual events, so we seized the opportunity to take in the scenery, and headed through the mountains last weekend. We hit Chattanooga and Nashville and scored all manner of incredible stuff, including some vintage Bertoia chairs (with matching Knoll pads), a Lane coffee table, a 50s lamp by C. Miller, some mod Scandia planters by McCoy, as well as a slew of other things. However, our favorite purchase is still the gigantic Rya rug pictured up top.  

Both the coffee table and the lamp are already in our booth at Highland Row Antiques, and several of the smaller items will end up there or in our Etsy shop. Make sure to check 'em out, if you have the chance!

Do The Clam

The Clam! 

We're quite smitten with 'em. Alan Fletcher's iconic receptacle designed in 1968, fashioned from melamine and produced by Pentagram. These were later redone in plastic by Mebel. Finding the reissues isn't easy, but turning up an original set is next to impossible ...at least for those of us in the states. Unsurprisingly, we're pretty stoked to now have three Pentagram editions to call our own.

Many thanks go out to our pal Jay for recently furnishing us with two of these elusive design objects. Also, thanks to Jessyca who sold us our white specimen many months ago! 

Does anyone have an orange/yellow or blue/green Pentagram set for sale? Please get in touch, if so! 

Plastic Palace People

We've spent the past few weeks clearing out our office for its upcoming renovation, and we quickly realized that we'd accumulated a lot of vintage space-age plastic items since the last related update. We figured we may as well photograph these now, as they're likely to be in storage (elsewhere in our home) for the foreseeable future. Not even sure how long some of these have been kickin' 'round the house but, without further ado, fix yer spinning orbitals on the following!

A white Artemide Giano Giano Vano side table designed by Emma Gismondi Schweinberger in 1966 is a semi-recent arrival, as are the large, vintage orange Componibili storage units designed by Anna Castelli Ferrieri for Kartell (thanks again, Marc!). Ferrieri was also responsible for the tall white domed container (also for Kartell) we discovered for $2 at a thrift store in a remote part of Georgia. Another Kartell product is the yellow Gino Colombini designed wastebasket Valery turned up at a local flea market. Japanese designer Makio Hasuike created the miscellaneous bathroom containers for Italian company, Gedy, in the 70s. Lastly, we're not sure who designed the space age tape dispenser pictured above, but a sticker indicates that it's from Italy as well.

It seems as though we really can't get enough Kartell products. Here's a round trolley cart designed by Franco Anonni that we purchased from our Instagram buddy Melissa. Thanks again! We've also had great luck turning up these Italian desk caddies designed by Rino Pirovano for Rexite in 1970. Thanks again to Danny for the white one!

Danny was also kind enough to hook us up with a white Telegono lamp designed by Vico Magistretti and produced by Artemide in 1967. We lucked out and found an orange example buried in the internet's depths a few weeks later. Lastly, our buddy Amy sold us her red version, successfully rounding out the trio!

 

Amy also kicked down her old Bacco bar, designed by Sergio Mazza and, again, produced by Artemide in 1967! Thank you so much, Amy, we love it! Our buddy Marc also came to our aid (again) by purchasing an orange Kartell KD27 lamp (designed by Joe Colombo) from a dealer in Germany and shipping it to us. Coincidentally, a week later, we discovered a red KD27 on Atlanta's Craigslist and purchased it in person! Now, if someone could just help us locate a yellow one, we'll be all set!

Here are a few more plastic items that require electrical power! A yellow Weltron 8 track player in pristine condition, an orange Boston pencil sharpener and a green Philips compact floating hairdryer. 

Astute GG&S readers will have no doubt noticed that we had an orange Kartell Rocchetto stool (designed by brothers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni) featured above. Many thanks are due to Trish, Martin, Damian, Maddie and Lady Frito Lay for their help in getting this pair from Melbourne to Atlanta (by way of Chicago). It may have taken over a year to accomplish, but it was well worth it! We're also grateful to our buddy Zack who stumbled across the blue specimen featured above! These three will all end up in the office once it's done. 

At least four of these vintage space-age light fixtures will also end up providing some much-needed illumination in our upcoming project. Despite the fact that these are regularly attributed to Luigi Colani, we're skeptical about the connection. Still, we love 'em and we were overjoyed when we bought four mint ones from a dealer right here in the states ...and for cheap! The fixture with clear panels came from our buddy Darrell and will end up in our master bathroom.

Well, we thought this update was over, until we remembered that we had actually picked up a vintage, red example of Dorothee Becker's Utensilo (that replaced the white one in Valery's dressing room). Our office will feature joint work stations, so it's likely that the previous one will end up in Valery's area. OK, that's really it for now! Whew!!

 

Cry Cry Cry

Being surrounded by friends and family was the salve that dulled the pain of turning 37 last month ...or something. Or maybe it was the awesome gifts Valery showered upon my undeserving self, like an assortment of vintage wind-up Hopping Horrors (complete with box), a marimba record featuring an overly festive (fellow) Mexican and a carved bird reminiscent of those feathered fellows fashioned by Couroc?

As if my senses weren't overloaded enough, Valery also delivered Mike Markesich's exhaustive TeenBeat Mayhem!, a rumored tome many years in the making, and a release highly anticipated by fans of raw n' primitive 60s recordings. Make sure to secure yourself a copy today!

Last but not least, my pals Mike and Damian were swell enough to hook me up with a triply stamped copy of the first Victims single and a clean copy of the third Eyes 45, respectively. Seeing as how I already owned the Victims, I sold my previous copy to a buddy (thanks again, Trey!) and directed the funds toward a tasty example of Jerry Lott's epic, Love Me, on Dot. A Happy Birthday to me, indeed!

And before I forget, many thanks to Tim, Cristina, Kevin, Amye, Susan and Corey for making it out for an impromptu birthday dinner (and thanks again for the LP, too, Tim—I suck!).