Identify this estate sale find - help!

This past weekend I attended one of my favorite kind of estate sales: a very old Washingtonian family in a very old grand house. The family bought said house during the great depression after selling their huge estate and literally never touched the house again: not paint, no adding furniture, etc.  Shabby chic would be a great term (if it wasn't already attached to something quite different). I wish I had some pictures to share with you of the house but I never thought of taking any snapshots unfortunately.

Sloans and Kenyon, a local auction house, hosts the best estate sales of the oldest families here in town. If they're hosting you know you need to be there! I had a huge haul (including literal armfuls of linens which I spent all day Sunday oxy-cleaning, laundering, and ironing) and just a few of the items are shown here in this post.

One item I purchased remains a bit of  a mystery. This small pitcher reminds me of belleek ware - the collectible paper-thin Irish porcelain, but is unsigned.

Notice it is double walled, the outer wall being pierced with a continuous inner lining.  The only marking is an S.72. and an LS scratched into the glazing. I can't figure out who made the thing.

Any idea who could have made my new treasure?

Estate sale mystery find

This past weekend I attended a few interesting estate sales and picked up a lot of 'treasure'! One pair of items though remains somewhat of a mystery to me and thought maybe someone would have some background. This unusual pair of macabre tree trunk vases appear to be quite old , perhaps Victorian period? Google searches turned up nothing other than a few Belleek vases but they did not have the unusual root 'legs'.  Has anyone seen a vase like this before?

 This extremely faint mark was hard to read and photograph - appears to be a serial number?

I also picked up this rather worn mahogany sidechair with tired damask upholstery. The wood has beautiful detailing but needs some conditioning.

Stay tuned for the reupholstered after in the coming weeks!

The power of blogging

Or maybe this post should be entitled "the power of oxi clean".  A few weeks ago my friend Meg of the blog PigtownDesign had written a post about some antique china she had won at auction which was heavily yellowed and using oxiclean to get out the stains.

Two weeks later, in fact this past weekend, I was at an estate sale and found a charming little antique plate which was heavily discolored for only $2 (see picture at top of the post). I remembered Meg's recommendation and decided to give it a try. It took about 10 hours soaking in the oxi-clean but look at the results; nearly perfect!

I'll be trying oxi-clean now on a number of other items; Thanks Meg! By chance, does anyone recognize the maker's mark on the back?

I received no compensation from oxi-clean (in fact I had to pay a premium in order to buy at my local drugstore!)

My dining room

May I apologize for my recent lack of posts but show you what I've been up to? As you may know I moved a few months ago into an older 'fixer upper' Coop apartment. I left downtown for the Cleveland Park neighborhood for numerous reasons, one of which was the need for more space and specifically a dining room.

Before I moved in the dining room had an ugly chandelier and wood shutters.  Heavy wool wall to wall carpeting was throughout. That was a few months of some hard work ripping it all out!

You may recognize a lot of these pieces if you've been reading my blog for awhile; they're just finally coming together in their proper space. The chair in the top picture is one of my 'haunted chairs' which I decided to upholster in the Ralph Lauren plaid.

The large pastel drawing above the bookcase has been with me for a few moves now and I never feel at home without it. This room contains many of my favorite objects but probably the most beautiful is my Capri decanter from Baccarat beneath the drawing, I just love the classic lines..

I love having books here in the dining room which I use not only for every meal but also to spread out and study the latest magazines. Probably the largest project I tackled myself (other than the reconfiguration of the walls for which I hired a contractor) was painting the window sashes black to match my doors. I love how they turned out!

The view through the archway into my foyer shows a sneak peak of some more of the apartment. I know many of you like seeing table settings and here is one below from a little housewarming dinner party I put together after finally pulling the room together.

I already have a pair of bamboo shades I was contemplating hanging in the windows for a layered look behind the curtains.  What do you think, do I need them? Practically speaking, as the window receives a lot of light I thought it might help with glare particularly in the summer. I suppose I could always take them down if they look too cluttered.  Thanks for visiting and let me know what you think about the blinds!

Portraits

Why not record your house for posterity in a memorable way like Baron Kuner did in 1760 of Memmingen, his country estate in Kunersberg -paint it on a platter. Of course, he owned his own faience pottery factory which helped! Have you done anything to record your estate?
Plateau now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thanks Paris Hotel Boutique!

I have long been an admirer of the online retailer Paris Hotel Boutique. When Cote de Texas offered a giveaway of two of their items I jumped at the chance to register!

I was so excited when I actually won! I chose an antique silver dish marked from the Alexander Young hotel. It's so incredibly heavy, beautiful and pretty large too!

I'm happy to report that the item arrived well-packaged and extremely quick. I plan on adding the company to my list of retailers I check out on a regular basis. You never know who you are buying from in online auctions so it's nice to know this is a reputable online dealer.

For now I have the dish living on my coffee table where it really has become the star! Thanks to Joni and also to Paris Hotel Boutique!!

My updated dining room

You may remember a few years ago I purchased an antique set of caned chairs and table made by Baker -see the post HERE. While the caning looked great, it wasn't very comfortable or practical and I had decided to have cushions made.

I used Aku Merali at Marketplace Interiors in Alexandria, VA. He is a well respected upholsterer here in DC used by everyone, including the White House. He recommended attaching a pad on a wooden base to the chair instead of seperate cushions and I followed the experts advice! I am so pleased with the result and couldn't be happier. The fabric I chose is Ralph Lauren Home's English Riding Velvet in Lovat -a beautiful muted turquoise.

After picking up the chairs on Saturday morning (thanks Mark!), I decided to host an inaugural launch and had some friends over for some fresh strawberry shortcake and champagne. I bought the Paisley Table Throw from Potterybarn which coordinates beautifully with the chair fabric. To go with the dessert theme, I used my Strawberries and Cream china by Royal Doulton and some Adam styled antique silver from Ms. Pixies.

I am so happy with how it all turned out and even more pleased to share my small changes with you all.

Superstitions

Do you hold any superstitions? I don't mean picking up pennies and avoiding black cats, this is a design blog after all! While going through some photos I took in the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier this year, I noticed that these wall lights had the candle wicks left unburnt. I've always been taught that tapers should be charred before being left in a candlestick; not sure why, but I've always followed this rule. I know it comes from some unknown superstition but I can't seem to find what would happen if I didn't burn them! Do you follow this practice?
These rococo wall lights are manufactored by the Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin in the 1760s.

Vizcaya: the pantries

The most interesting parts of any house museum, in my opinion, are the service spaces.Vizcaya was planned primarily around the public and entertaining rooms, which leaves only awkward leftover spaces for the numerous servants which were required in this time period. Oddly enough, the kitchen is on the 2nd floor, not in the basement (but we'll get to that later!). The first of these service spaces is a cupboard off the dining room (marked passage on the plan above in blue). Functioning as a small butler's pantry, the space also worked as a hall between the dining room and tea room so had to be attractive.The ceiling has a gorgeous painted wood ceiling with painted wood gates hiding the service cupboard which houses china storage and wash-up sink. The gilded English china seen here has an interesting story which I'll talk about at the end of this post. PS: don't you just love these painted wood cabinets?Located on the opposite side of the Tea Room (seen on the plan above in green), the main butler's pantry is larger than most modern household kitchens. The room boasted the most modern of conveniences for the time period, including the electric annunciator panel above which showed where a servant was required when rung for.Another modern contraption was the master clock, seen behind the cabinets above, which controlled the time on 10 clocks throughout the house (much like many schools have today).Above you can see the painted door into the tea room. The open countertops have been converted into glassed-in display cases for the many sets of china Vizcaya posesses.

Above is the yacht china which was in Deering's yacht moored at Vizcaya. It bears the New York Yacht Club emblem as well as his own. The china is rimmed in silver to protect it from chipping on bumpy voyages.The china seen here was ordered by Deering from England for his house in Chicago and was originally brought over, unfortunately, on the Titantic. The china obviously had to be remade and was shipped over a few years later (hand gilding isn't fast!)

By this point Vizcaya had been completed so it was brought here where it remains to this day. The originally ordered china, however, still lies at the bottom of the Atlantic. No word however on whether the White Star Line covered the replacements; does anyone know? Now THATS a story!

A smokey repast

As blogger is being problematic with uploading photos, instead of a real post I'll share with you an adventure from my weekend. A friend from NYC who had never visited DC decided to come down for the weekend as my guest and see the sights. After a busy Saturday walking around the National Mall visiting the monuments and the Smithsonian museums, we decided to make a simple, filling meal at home: a salad followed by a steak, potatoes and asparagus.

For the steak, I thought I would take a tip from Jacques Pepin and fry it in butter. BAD PLAN, Jacques! After 2 minutes my apartment was filled with so much heavy smoke that you could barely see 2 hands in front of your face, setting off my smoke detector. Regrettably, I opened my windows and then the door to my condo's hallway -which then set off the entire building's fire alarm system!Sirens blaring, an annoying electronic voice repeating *WARNING WARNING* every 30 SECONDS, elevators and doors disabled for 30 minutes, I then had to explain to not only about 30 of my neighbors that it was a false alarm but also to about 10 very kind (and annoyed) firemen! All said and done, after the excitement ceased, the meal was delicious. So much for a relaxing meal for two! How was your weekend?

Easter Dinner

This past weekend, I hosted Easter dinner for six and thought I would share it with all of you via the weekly Tablescape Thursdays at Between Naps on the Porch.

I was tired of the white tablecloths I have, so I went to Pottery Barn and got this beautiful tan paisley cloth. It has tiny specs of green in the pattern that match the green linen napkins I already had.

I used my white sanssouci plates for the main course (roast lamb and vegetables) with some pretty antique plates by Ernst Wahliss with a red floral pattern for the salad course (waldorf salad).

The serving pieces are an antique pattern by Minton that I rarely get to use as they're so big! I dream of having a dining room someday so I can hang that huge platter on the wall!

I chose 2 small bunches of ranunculus on either end of the table, leaving the main course as the center of attention (family style).

I had to have a fun party favor to embaress my guests with. These candy suckers in the shape of a bunny snout will come in handy for ransom someday as I insisted each guest had their picture taken 'wearing' them!

I hope you enjoyed my Easter dinner tour!