NYC - Seeing Design

Published January 28, 2008 by Anne Collins Howard

Darwin Descends from Wedgwood?

What do Josiah Wedgwood and Charles Darwin have in common? A daughter and a mother! Josiah Wedgwood was Charles Darwin’s grandfather! I discovered this interesting tidbit when I attended the UBS Art Gallery opening of “Josiah Wedgwood and His Circle.” The exhibit focuses on the family and friends of Wedgwood, the vertible grandfather of contemporary ceramics (and evolution, apparently). Fortunately for me, the exhibit was around the corner from my office so I spent my lunch hour leisurely strolling through the space. It was while admiring the Wedgwood founder’s incredible cream ware and jasper ware that I came across the name, Charles Darwin. I was lucky enough to spot it since there was no attempt to highlight the connection or draw attention to it. No bold, no italics, no anything … just a line or two signifying Wedgwood’s connection to the man who coined the term, “survival of the fittest”! I rushed over to the curator for confirmation. Lo and behold, the two greats were related!

(above) This Wedgwood pitcher looks like something Charles Darwin would have crafted, doesn’t it?

Grandfather Josiah Wedgwood (left); Grandson Charles Darwin (right). I am sure Grandpa would have been proud of Charles' scientific advances but livid about the unruly facial hair.

Josiah Wedgwood and His Circle on view January 24 – April 18, 2008
At the UBS Art Gallery, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY

Etc

exhibits NYC

Published January 10, 2008 by Anne Collins Howard

Fresh Functional Campaign Furniture

Campaign furniture has been steadily sneaking its way back into mainstream design but these new Anthropologie chairs prove it’s modern again. Anthropologie worked with South African furniture makers, Melville and Moon, to recreate the classic foldable, adaptable hardwood Roorkhee chair but then had the local Pretoria textile company, Design Team, upholster it in a punchy pink African cameo pattern for a truly fresh look. This is an example of Anthropologie’s recent efforts to support South African artists and their creative community. Select Anthropologie stores around the U.S. will be carrying handmade products from the country and the gallery at the Rockefeller Plaza store in NYC will be displaying the majority of the South African collection through February 7th.

For Anthropolgies near you visit Anthropologie’s store locator and ask them if they carry the Cameo Campaign Chair and other South African products.

Only four of these Moonlight and Magic light dogs will be arriving to the U.S., likely to be in the LA or New York stores.

But there are plenty of these fun Cabbage Garden vase sets available online now.

Finds Places

exhibits NYC

Published December 11, 2007 by Anne Collins Howard

Literal Bookshelves

I was doing some after-Christmas shopping at the Bryant Park Holiday Shops yesterday and came across these literal book shelves at the Parable Ink clothing stall. How wonderfully obvious–books are speared with metal poles and secured with hex nuts for a very cheeky set of shelves. With open sides, they wouldn’t be a sensible place to store literature, but quite clever for a display cabinet. With a closet cleaning and $2 at the hardware store, these would be fairly easy to make, but if DIY is not your thing, they are also available for purchase. On January 1st the shelves are being auctioned for charity with proceeds going to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. To place your bid email the owners from their site at, parableink.com/contact.

A close-up of the simple pole, nut and book construction