Eames to Please
Wright auction house and gallery is gearing up for a massive, headline-grabbing sale of all things Eames, and the doors are open now until the April 8 sale to preview the 133 lots of furniture, models, photos, and ephemera. Many of the items come from the collection of John and Marilyn Neuhart, the official archivists of the Eames Office for more than 30 years, and have never been on the block before. Bid on Ray and Charles’s iconic tables, modular shelving units, sinuous wooden screens, and slouchy leather chairs and chaise longues, or curiosities such as a Herman Miller stock certificate or a painted cloud backdrop from the company office. The sale culminates with an archive collection of more than 100 binders stuffed with photos, clippings, graphics, and office records, estimated to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000. If you haven’t gotten your tax return yet, of course, you can always order one of Wright’s scholarly, coffee-table-quality catalogs of this historic event, available for $30.
Achilles’ Spiel
The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has a noble history of engaging, educating, and entertaining the public with the legacy of FLW for more than 30 years, and their ongoing roster of lectures and tours is impressive, to say the least. On Saturday, April 10, they’ve planned a retail-focused architectural salvage walk in Chicago, led by art historian Rolf Achilles, a member of the School of the Art Institute’s historic preservation faculty and the curator of the Smith Museum of Stained Glass at Navy Pier. Achilles will give historical context and suggest creative home repurposings for architectural artifacts at some of our favorite Chicago resources. The 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. revivalist roundelay begins and ends at Salvage One, with stops at Urban Remains, Jans Antiques, (a handful of their hardware pictured here) and Ina’s (“the breakfast queen”) for lunch. Transportation is provided, and the $80 tickets are available here.
Mid-Century Cinema
When I was at the Sundance Film Festival in January, one of my favorite flicks was Please Give, a smart comedy from Nicole Holofcener (Friends With Money, Lovely and Amazing) about an angst-filled liberal New York couple with a successful resale furniture business. Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt are spot-on as the owners of a SoHo shop specializing in mid-century finds (sort of a Big Apple version of Chicago’s Room Service or Post 27). A lot of films play the festival circuit and never seem to get released, but I was happy to see a trailer for Please Give last weekend, which means it’s coming out in limited release sometime soon in Chicago. Watch for it or add it to your NetFlix list.
Posh Picks
If you’ve been planning to Pick Out Some Housewares at P.O.S.H.’s Dish Ran Away With the Spoon sale, I’ve got some good news and bad news. The annual storewide sale is ending at midnight this Friday, so there are only a few days left to take advantage of the bargains on vintage hotel china and silver, European flea-market finds, linens, paper goods, and the rest of the store’s charming, quirky menu. But good things come to those who wait—P.O.S.H. has just discounted sale items even more. The price of these ticker-tape creamers has crashed to $1.00 from $10.00, for example. Shop online or on site.
Paint Party
Frigid ridiculous weather (A late-March blizzard? Really, Mother N?) didn’t stop crowds of HGTV-holics from lining up for the David Bromstad event at Colori’s paint boutique, and I also spotted industry insiders such as Verde owner Michelle Fitzpatrick and interior decorator Brynne Rinderknecht in the jam-packed room. Reps from Mythic Paint were on hand (Bromstad has developed three color collections with them and uses the line exclusively on his show Color Splash), and the personable, animated Mr. Bromstad (shown here with Colori owner Michelle Quaranta) didn’t disappoint. He took questions, offered color advice, patiently posed for photos, and served up some inside dish on what’s going on with the show (it’s moving from San Francisco to Miami, fyi, so expect some dramatically modern milieus) and his life (he’s branching into hotel design, starting with an Arizona property that the client wants to resemble “The Brady Bunch on steroids,” he’s a trained artist whose inspirations are Walt Disney and Philippe Starck, and he’ll soon be selling his original artwork at the website bromstad.com). The main thing I took from the afternoon (other than a swell Colori giftbag—thanks, Michelle!) was to be open to using paint dramatically and that there really aren’t so many etched-in-stone rules. Don’t be afraid of the dark in small rooms, for example (just amp up the lighting).