Celerie Kemble

Where Do You Tansu?

In the Entryway?
Perfect for hats and scarves, keys and keeping other clutter out of view, this iron strap isho dansu is mixed with other Asian antiques and objects in this elegant entry by Vincente Wolf.

Even shoes or rainboots can fit if the tansu is big enough. Love the similarity between the spare Shaker-like English rush-seat chairs and the simple mizuya tansu.

In the Living Room?
The gilded doors and elaborately grained wood on this early 20th century tansu dresses up a corner of Chris Barrett’s tiny home.

In the Dining Room?
Designer and blogger Lauren Liess uses the bottom half of a tansu as a sideboard in her dining room. The big sliding doors and deep cabinet make storage easy.

In the Kitchen?
I know I’ve shown this Michael Smith photo before, but I love it so much I’ll show it again. He is a master at using Japanese antique furniture in his designs. For more great examples from him click here.

In the Family Room?
This example is a bit of a cheat as it actually a Korean bandaji (blanket chest), a family heirloom of Ally’s of From the Right Bank.

In the Bedroom?
A big tansu, perfect for clothes, blankets and pillows in the Chelsea bedroom of Ray Booth and John Shea…

or a small one on raised metal legs, making a perfect nightstand in this gorgeous Madeline Stuart designed bedroom.

Smaller chigai dana with their open staggered shelves, often laquered and decorative, are incredibly versatile too. Besides the most famous one residing in the White House, you can find them tucked in numerous interesting spaces. Check out the one in the left corner of this Markham Roberts designed living room…

…and another hidden in the left corner of Celerie Kemble‘s bedroom.

I’ve had a few questions lately from readers on how to blend Japanese antique furniture into Western interiors, so this post proves my adage that a tansu can work in almost any design style, whether modern, traditional or eclectic. Perpetually underused in the design world, tansu are great for storage and display as well as gorgeous in their own right.

So friends and readers, where do you tansu? I’d love to do a follow-up post showing photos of tansu in your rooms! Get out your cameras, do a little styling if you want and send me photos of tansu in your homes!

Image credits: 1. Metropolitan Home November/December 1995, photo credit: Simon Watson, 2. credit unknown, perhaps Kelly Hoppen, 3. House Beautiful July/August 2011, photo credit: Victoria Pearson, 4. via Pure Style Home, 5. via Chinoiserie Chic, 6. via From the Right Bank, 7. Elle Decor September 2007, photo credit: Eric Piasecki, 8. Elle Decor January 2007, photo credit: unknown, 9. House Beautiful May 2011, photo credit: Thomas Loof, 10. Lonny October/November 2010, photo credit: Patrick Cline

Oct 25, 2011 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design 12 Comments Tags: antiques, Celerie Kemble, Chris Barrett, japanese antiques, Lauren Liess, Madeline Stuart, Markham Roberts, michael smith, tansu, Vincente Wolf

Celerie Kemble’s Peacocks or Samurai Armour…Which Do You Prefer?

After my butterfly finds post last week, I have had a little voice in my head whispering to me over that small detail about the stuffed peacock in the Celerie Kemble designed apartment in the newest Lonny magazine. I had mentioned that taxidermy peacocks have been all the rage for some time now, but as trends go, they don’t do it for me quite the way butterflies do. Here’s the aforementioned bird in the dining room.

But why did it all feel so familiar? The article mentioned that Kemble had designed this space previously as a model apartment for the building’s developer, but that wasn’t it. I knew Kemble herself had a peacock on the wall in her living room, but it was definitely a different one.

She can’t be credited with starting the trend – for instance, here is Anna Sui’s NYC apartment resplendent with pattern and peacock from an autumn 2009 Elle Decor issue…

…and prior to that I can recall the one in Jeffrey Bilhuber‘s gorgeous place, featured in the New York Social Diary.

The recent September Elle Decor featured the San Francisco home of Alexis and Trevor Traina with their peacock filled dining room, which I was also decorated some time ago and shown earlier elsewhere. But I am getting off tangent and I don’t really mean to be writing a post about the trend of dead birds in decorating! If I was really planning on doing that, I’d need to get all historical on you…

Then it finally hit me! Kemble’s dining room, which I had featured in a previous post, was basically the same room. Maybe her clients live in the same building in a similarly laid out apartment? After all, it is a big new building. And Kemble’s dining room had quite unusual display items too – a pair of samurai warrior armor. Do you remember these?

At the time of that post, I asked what you thought of the armor. So I guess today’s question is which do you prefer? Stuffed birds or stuffed suits?

And while we are talking about peacocks anyway, I simply cannot avoid getting all historical on you. I have to put in a pitch for the most extraordinary peacock related place in the world – James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room – the showpiece of the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C. Recently restored to its original splendor…

…the curators have taken yet a further step by temporarily taking down the blue and white style porcelain that Frederick R. Leyland originally displayed in there and installing Charles Lang Freer’s (who later purchased the room and brought it to America) original collection of ancient Asian ceramics. In effect, the room has been rewound to 1908. Furthermore, on the third Thursday of each month, the shutters on the windows will be opened, allowing visitors to view the room in natural light. This is truly a special opportunity and not to be missed! The full history and further information can be found here and here.

Courtney mentioned it this summer and a few friends from the D.C. area wrote to me about it as well. I plan on making a pilgrimage (and when talking about the Peacock Room, that is the correct word) there this summer with the girls. Anyone want to join me?

Photo credits: 1. Lonny September/October 2011, photo credit: Patrick Cline, 2 & 6. Lonny October/November 2010, photo credit: Patrick Cline, 3. Elle Decor September 2009, photo credit: Eric Bowman, 4. New York Social Diary July 13, 2007, photo credit: Jeffrey Hirsch, 5. Elle Decor September 2011, photo credit: Simon Upton, 7-8. Freer/Sackler website

Oct 17, 2011 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, Interior Design, Porcelain and Pottery 9 Comments Tags: Celerie Kemble, Charles Lang Freer, Frederick R. Leyland, Freer/Sackler Galleries, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, James McNeill Whistler, Jeffrey Bilhuber, peacocks, samurai warriors, taxidermy, The Peacock Room

More Magic in the Air…My Butterfly Find

Following up on the idea of “finding” from my last post, I want to show my most recent purchase – a true unexpected find! I have long had a butterfly fetish and have been stomping my feet in frustration the last few years at their trendiness. I think I may have even complained about it in earlier posts and I am sure long time collectors of silhouettes and intaglios feel the same way I do right now. I won’t recreate the wheel by showing the plethora of interiors featuring butterfly art as there are already tons of posts out there.

I will, however, mention the more recent trend of some wonderful butterfly installations, different from the more typical 19th century prints or taxidermy mounted ones we usually see. The first to catch my eye was Myra Hoeffer’s all white California house, with its stream of butterflies mounted high on the wall as if they had come to roost there.

The butterflies are by artist Paul Villinski, made from recycled beer cans no less, who currently has an amazing looking installation at the Morgan Lehman Gallery in NYC. His work is utterly thrilling so if you have a moment, I would recommend paging through his website.

You might also remember the black butterflies on Serena’s wall in the TV series Gossip Girl. Those were his too…

And then there was that gorgeous butterfly box in the Celerie Kemble designed apartment in the newest Lonny. Obviously this room was irresistible to me as it is lavender, but I thought it was the perfect combination of pretty and functional too. And by the way, there is also a stuffed peacock in that apartment, talking about another trendy item right now, but one that definitely holds less interest for me…

What does any of this have to do with my newest finds? Not much really, other than the butterflies. This past weekend I had the opportunity to purchase two early Chizuko Yoshida butterfly prints from the 1970s. Yoshida is from one of the most distinguished families of Japanese woodblock print artists, and I had long admired her work. About five years ago, the CWAJ Print Show had a retrospective exhibition for its 50th anniversary that included one of her pieces, which had actually been the cover print of the show catalog in 1976. (Lower left corner of the catalog page below). I loved it, but unfortunately it was not for sale. With the 56th annual show coming up next week (watch for an upcoming post), I have had Japanese prints on my mind.

So imagine my surprise at stumbling across 2 of her seminal butterfly prints, one from 1977 and the other from 1978, already framed by the best gallery in town some 35 years ago. Perhaps they were her print show entries for the next two consecutive years after her cover print? I don’t know and have not had time to research it yet because I am too excited to wait to share them with you. Sorry in advance for the lousy photos, but the glare on the glass made it impossible to get a good shot, at least not without special equipment and more fussing on my part.

Here are some close-ups with detail, but I will have to show them on the wall in a later post. Click the image for a large view.

Definitely a little magic in the air…

Image credits: House Beautiful April 2011, photo credit: Francesco Lagnese, 2-3 via Paul Villinksi, 4. Lonny September/October 2011, photo credit: Patrick Cline, 5. 50th CWAJ Print Show Catalogue, page 152, 6-9. me.

Oct 7, 2011 By tokyojinja in Artist Spotlight, Design Motif, Interior Design 5 Comments Tags: butterflies, Celerie Kemble, Chizuko Yoshida, CWAJ Print Show, hanga, japanese prints, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Myra Hoefer, Paul Villinksi

Thumbs Up or Down? Samurai Armor in the Home

The October/November issue of Lonny Magazine featured this photo from popular decorator Celerie Kemble’s Central Park South apartment. The glamorous interiors included this dining room, with suits of samurai warrior armor standing guard.

Popular culture has given us an idealized view of samurai living their lives by the codes of Bushido (Way of the Warrior) and committing seppuku (ritual suicide) if dishonored. By the time this photo was taken during the peaceful Edo period, many samurai like this fellow below no longer needed to fight and became bureaucrats and administrators instead.

A fair number of antique dealers here specialize in war related items – there is always someone selling swords, tsuba (sword guards) and other paraphernalia at a market or antique show. While not completely uncommon, you don’t see armor everyday though. However I did see this set a few weeks ago and took this photo because I knew sooner or later this very question would need to be addressed.

Classic estates in Europe routinely display suits of armor, but what say you all to samurai in New York? Brilliant or creepy? Or something else entirely?

I am holding my opinion until the votes are in…Please comment on this post and let me know what you think!

Image credits:1. October-November 2010 Lonny Magazine, 2. Spacious Planet, 3. me.

Nov 4, 2010 By tokyojinja in Interior Design 27 Comments Tags: armor, Celerie Kemble, Lonny, samurai warriors