New Jersey Antiques

Form Versus Function…Apothecary Chest in the Kitchen

Although I am back in Doha there are some summer things I can’t seem to get off my mind. Work on the beach house, mainly the exterior (more on that next week), will be happening while we are away this year. I figured the unexpected outside work would use up all the kitchen renovation money we had been hoarding, but in that magical way that bundling multiple projects tends to make each individual project much less expensive (at least in terms of the contractors’ fees) I find it may just be possible to do both. On that note, I saw a beautiful apothecary/shop/printers cabinet at one of my favorite local antique stores this summer. The color and the patina were just lovely, the size was right and even better, so was the price. It had just the kind of feel I want for the kitchen, evident in past posts and a few Pinterest boards (here and here). The only problem with it is a lack of functionality. Thirty-two tiny drawers don’t hold much, now do they?

There are a host of kitchens out in the stratosphere that feature an apothecary style or shop counter style piece as a center point in the kitchen. A few spring right to mind, including this one…

…and this one. Both have been pinned endlessly and would be perfect spaces in our beach cottage. But what both of these kitchens have going for them that you can’t tell from the photos is that they are in very large rooms and offer just adjunct storage and workspace. It doesn’t hurt that the drawers are actually quite a bit larger and somewhat useful.

The same holds true for one of my be all and end all kitchens, written about extensively before, that belonged to Peri Wolfman and Charles Good. Their Soho loft kitchen (and eponymous shop) sparked a revolution in kitchen design. They used a large shop counter as a divider, but as you see, space was never an issue.

This grainy photo from Pinterest gives you a closer view. Sorry, my scanner is down, so I can’t offer a better picture.

So back to my cabinet. Here it is in all its simple glory. Yes, I know the knobs are not original (you can see the old tack holes of the original handles) but they have certainly been on there for quite some time and I think they are adorable. Yes, I know the bottom left hand drawer is painted a darker color, but that seems to be part of its charm.

In order to get opinions, its important to see the space where the cabinet would go. Voila! We had been planning to get rid of a piece of cabinetry in this spot in lieu of a small island, but the chest above is narrow enough that it could work. We could also put a larger top on it and use it as the island itself. I think to truly understand the space it would probably help to read earlier posts on the kitchen renovation, like this one and this one, but imagine dark wood floors, gray, white marble, natural brass.

So? What say you all? Form or function? Should I just buy it for insurance either way? I will tell you I have a very large pantry in the kitchen and some of the existing cabinets are not at all full.

For an incredible look at one of the most creative uses of an antique shop counter used in a kitchen, be sure to click over to Steve’s blog An Urban Cottage. Some of the best posts can be found here, here, here and here, but his whole blog is terrific!

Sep 5, 2014 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design, Kitchens, Renovation and Decoration Report 13 Comments Tags: antiques, apothecary, beach house, kitchen islands, kitchen remodel, kitchen renovation, kitchens, New Jersey Antiques, Peri Wolfman, shop counter

Today’s Column

So progress on the house has been moving a bit more slowly than I would like this summer and I am struggling to find the pieces I want to finish up the bedrooms. We had a dead and empty corner in our bedroom that I planned to furnish eventually, but it was not a priority and I wasn’t sure what I wanted there anyway. But the emptiness had been bothering me.

I checked in at a few of my my usual haunts and picked up this simple Doric style wood column. I’m not sure whether it was an interior or exterior architectural feature or perhaps more likely from a piece of built-in furniture, but I didn’t care. I had to have it and it was a bargain to boot! I brought it home with the idea stirring in the back of my mind that it might be just what I need to balance the French chaise and fill the dead space with some vertical interest. And I was right! It’s worth clicking to see the large photo for details.

The patina on it is lovely, although it is slightly rickety and needs a bit of love and tightening. I can’t date it for sure, but it seems to be late 19th or early 20th century.

Like I said, I hadn’t planned on one for the space, although I do recall this page from the winter issue of Lonny magazine catching my eye. This fluted column pedestal, in case you can’t read the fine print, is almost $1500. And good antique ones can be even more than that.

Now the big question about mine is whether I should add a plant…

…a bust…

…a vase or urn…

…or just leave it plain?

Any thoughts on my column today?

Image Credits: 1-2. me, 3. Lonny December/January 2013, 4. via Design Chic, 5. Suzanne Rheinstein via StyleBeat, 6. House Beautiful December/January 2012, photo credit: Amy Neusinger via Mark D. Sikes, 7. Lonny June/July 2010, photo credit: Patrick Cline.

Aug 2, 2013 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Renovation and Decoration Report 14 Comments Tags: antiques, bust, column, New Jersey Antiques, plant stand

Estate Sales…An American Institution

My neighbor E. knocked on my door early this morning and offered me a little antiquer’s crack cocaine…a low entry number to an estate sale at a big house a few blocks away. Rumour had it that it was chock-full of furniture, books, memorabilia and a few generations of general accumulation. With four floors to cover, I was hoping for some great scores. While US flea markets are akin to shrine sales, I don’t think the estate sale has a comparable entity in Japan. And speaking of items made for the export market the other day, I was hopeful there might be some lurking in the 100+ years of stuff.

Unfortunately there was no luck on the Asian goods. As you might expect, the house was full of heavy Victorian furniture, like this massive Renaissance Revival bookcase and velvet covered chair.

Less expected perhaps, although less so on reflection, was this. Need a buffalo head anyone?

Most of the more valuable items were traditional antiques. There were a few tables covered in Wedgwood Jasperware, including this rare domed cheese dish. There were many other tables full of crystal and china.

All of those giant bookcases were full of books. Even though I have taught my daughters not to judge a book by its cover, I am definitely weighing books for their physical appearance these days. I want my bookshelf here in Ocean Grove, which I have yet to find by the way, to be visually beautiful. That being said, I don’t want a bunch of fake things picked just for their appearance so I do try to pick up classics and others things that sound like they might be interesting to page through. I am sure my husband will be excited by Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln.

My house has no coat closet in the front so I have been keeping an eye open for a coat/hat rack. I had been thinking about a Thonet bentwood style, but stumbled across this simple Mission oak one at the sale. I think it will do to hold an occasional sweater and sun hats, if only it would warm up and stop raining, that is.

I also picked up a little silver plate and glass condiment basket to add to my bits and bobs of antique silver. There is nothing like the patina of old silver.

And no groaning, those of you who are bored with this topic, but for those who aren’t, I got this mid size glass fishing float for ten bucks. You know how sad I was to leave my big ones behind in Tokyo, but I think I can ft this one into my tiny bathroom. To give a sense of its relative size, I have put a few of my tiny ones into the photo. Still searching for the perfect basket or container for those, so styled photos yet to come!

Rumour has it everything will be half price tomorrow. Let me know if you want me to run back and get the buffalo head!

Jun 25, 2011 By tokyojinja in Books, Movies & TV, Furniture, Glass, Housewares, Interior Design, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets 4 Comments Tags: estate sale, Japanese glass floats, Jasperware, New Jersey Antiques, silver, Victorian antiques, Wedgwood

Glass Insulators Can’t Protect Me From Jet Lag

Jet lag and general reorientation (disorientation?) have kept me from posting this past week, but not of course, from antiquing. I have managed to visit most of my usual haunts here on the northern New Jersey shore before even making it to the supermarket, which luckily for my children, I finally did today. The sad news for me is that I have not managed to find anything on my “need” list for the beach house, nor anything on my “just want” list, which means I will have to cast my net further afield. Hopefully that will yield some good posts too.

One item that did catch my eye at many of the shops I visited were antique/vintage glass insulators. I know I have a strong following of blue-green glass and fishing float junkies, so I thought these might satisfy an itch. I have seen them on occasion, but not particularly noticed them until I saw this group lying in a trunk amidst vintage rolling pins at the Point Pleasant Antique Emporium.

Once I noticed them, I saw them all over the Emporium…

…as well as other places, such as the Point Pavillion Antiques Center.

Historically used to insulate telegraph wires (glass does not conduct electricity well), these glass insulators are no longer in use and have become collectible. As you might expect, there are entire websites devoted to their study and sale. At The Insulator Store, some of the rarer pieces are described in language that makes them sound like diamonds or champagne; “An absolutely dazzling Roman Helmet, in a brilliant shade of green. This particular piece has loads of charm – a few faint amber wisps, great color variation and some light fizz in the ears.”

The beauty shown and described above is $173 at the Insulator Store, one of many unusual ones stocked there, including a Mickey Mouse shape! Most of the insulators I saw were basic blue or clear and quite simple, priced in the $3-$5 range.

What should you do with them, you ask? Well, one of the simplest ways to display them is along a window ledge, allowing the sun to shine through.

Turning them into small pendant lights seems to be popular too.

And another version with the insulator hanging upside down.

The Lamp Shop sells a conversion kit for glass insulators which I found in a post on Katy Elliot’s blog. There is also a link for cork sockets, perfect for turning glass jugs into lamps, so I plan on doing that to one of my great finds back in Tokyo.

And since I am now in New Jersey, why not show you how weird and wonderful it can be? Stanley Hammell has been collecting glass insulators for the past 15 or so years, but more importantly, he has been displaying them around his property in Pomona.

Trumps the windowsill display…

Image credits: 1-3 & 5. me, 4. via The Insulator Store, 6. available at Railroadware, photo via Remodelista, 7. via Retro Renovation, 8. via Weird N.J.

Jun 17, 2011 By tokyojinja in Glass, Lighting, Shop Talk 9 Comments Tags: glass insulators, New Jersey Antiques