Wedgwood Extended

The amazing exhibit of 300 years of Wedgwood at the Mount Clare Mansion in Baltimore has been extended until July 7, 2007. They have had an overwhelming response to this incredible show and want to make sure it is available to more people. I strongly encourage you to visit Mount Clare and see this stunning collection of Wedgwood before it closes. It's a great education!

Baltimore Chairs

I was reading the NY Times' Thursday House & Garden section the other week and tore out a photo to blog about... The title of the piece is "Early 19th Century Baltimore Given Breezy Update". Unless you know that the Baltimore that the article is referring to is a Baltimore Chair, you might be forgiven for wondering what the writer was talking about.

Baltimore has always been a port city, and during the 1700's a number of cabinetmakers were active here, due to the availability of exotic woods that came into the port. The Baltimore Chair generally had a painted back, sometimes in gilt, and cane seats. It's because of the cane seats and the wooden slat backs that these chairs are hard to come by. Many that do survive are lacking the original paint. The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Maryland Historical Society have some great selections in their Maryland Furniture collections.

Charles Fradin, a furniture designer in LA, about whom the NY Time article was written, has designed the Baltimore Collection, with pieces ranging from a small chair to a large book case. The Jasper Chair, above, is listed for $3,500 and is one of eight pieces in the collection. Unfortunately, Mr. Fradin doesn't have a website, and I only have a crappy scan of his lovely chair.

The top two images are from Chipstone, a house museum in Wisconsin, which has some great information and beautiful photos. The type is tiny though.

Carleton Varney, Part III

Yesterday I stopped by the Book Thing on the way to see my mother (how convenient that it's just a small detour!) and found another vintage decorating book, "Dress Up Your Home" by Catherine Blondin, published in 1952. I think I am getting a small collection of these fun books.

A random leap into The Book of Decorating Ideas produced this: The Sunshine Age in Decorating - Beiges and greys are being replaced by sunshine and yellow has become a great neutral colour. Sunny yellow is a great decorating background colur and works well with any colour scheme. He goes on to suggest a few room schemes including sunshine yellow walls, emerald-green carpeting, and sofas and club chairs covered in a gay floral print - lots of yellows, greens, oranges, blues and purples on a white background... Some of his other suggestions are even more lurid!

That living room sounds like a bad acid trip to me, but I do agree that yellow is a great neutral colour. Yellows can range from the palest shades that are just an inch away from white, to the yellows that are associated with the Provence region of France that have a lot of red in them. I have never used yellow in my decorating because my houses have always been dosed with sunshing. In my current house, I have a large tree out front that blocks a lot of light. So I have a yellow flower-print sofa, two pale yellow ottomans and a large yellow Chinese screen. These items go a long way to make the room warm and give the feeling of light.

Since yellow falls on the warm side of the spectrum, it is best to use it in rooms that don't already get lots of sun. If you live in a cold grey climate, think of how yellow would add cheer and warmth to a room. I think that the verdict on yellow is that it is a great neutral.

Images: Martha Stewart

Damien Hirst

I am not a huge fan of Damien Hirst's work, usually consisting of something like a pig, a cow or a shark preserved intact in formaldahydeas well as other shockers. Things like that make me a bit queasy.

I was listening to the BBC PM news and they were talking about a new exhibit at the White Cube Gallery in London entitled "For the Love of God". The centerpiece is a skull from the 1800's. More than 8600 ethnically-sourced diamonds cover the skull, which is encased in platinum. The only original part of the skull which is still showing is its teeth.

I do like this piece, entitled "LSD" a bit more than most of Hirst's others... What do you think about him?

Gardenias & Number 100

My family has had a gardenia plant (bush) for about 40 years now, and my siblings and I have taking cuttings from it and propogated them into full-size plants. The original plant had grown so large that my brothers-in-law were recruited to move it outside at Easter and inside at the October birthday celebrations. Unfortunately, my parents' plant got a black fungus and has been dying off a hunk at a time for about a year.

When I moved to Wales, I entrusted my plant to my sister, M, who's not a big gardener. Luckily, it thrived and although it's a little leggy, it looks good. Last night a friend came for drinks and we sat outside. The scent of the gardenia flowers filled the night air. I have about six or seven flowers with more to come. I wish you could smell their peppery sweet scent.

This is my 100th post on Pigtown*Design. Thank you to all who've been reading since I started in January and thanks for your nice comments, for your links to my blog, for your tips and suggestions and for your friendship over the ether. It's been lots of fun. Now on towards 200!

Hermès Garden Bag

Even though my back garden, and I use that word loosely, since it's all cement and potted plants, is tiny, I am not sure I would use this yummy bag as a gardening bag. I do have a tool or three, and there is some dirt out there, but paying from $1300 to $1550 for a gardening bag, even if it is Hermès, isn't something that would occur to me. Instead, I will just keep using the cotton garden bag from Target that costs $25.

But I sure do like the Hermès bag. It comes in blue/black, pink/black, black/black and orange/orange.

Thank You

I just wanted to send thanks from me, and also from my family, for all of your nice words of sympathy over the past several days. This has a difficult time, but it is made easier knowing that we have the love and support of friends, both known and not-yet-met, from across the world.

In the eulogy my brother gave, he used the line "an ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life". I told him that it was the same line I use on the title of my blog, and that is the way I try to live my life. Obviously, a lesson well-learned from my father.

GWF - Writer, Gardener & Collector

My father passed away this afternoon after a long and happy life. He was born in Nottingham England in 1924. He served in the British Navy during the war years and spent time in Africa, Asia and India. After the war ended, he emigrated to the US in 1947. He became a US citizen in 1953, but also retained his UK citizenship. He also married my mother that year.

Dad was a writer for the Baltimore Sun and he maintained ties to the paper for many years, writing articles and features for the paper. He then moved to become the director of public relations at the Walters Art Gallery where he initiated many art in public programs, including the Art Abroad trips to Europe. Finally, he was the special projects for the Baltimore County Library system. After his retirement, he wrote for many publications on a range of topics.

Dad enjoyed many hobbies, especially reading, gardening and collecting. He was president of the Maryland Horticulture Society and the Baltimore Bibliophiles. He was very interested in history, cooking, travelling and classical music and opera. He loved to read and at one point had more than 4,000 books in his library. He read the Sun, New York Times and Washington Post every day.

My father, three days short of his 83rd birthday, will be missed by all who knew him, especially his three daughters and one son, his seven (soon to be nine) grandchildren and of course, my mother, his wife of 54 years.

Photoshop & Wedgwood

One of my guests this weekend was a professional photographer. She spent the night and yesterday morning, we spent some time working on Photoshop tips. She knows how to manipulate photographs for maximum effect and I know how to do graphics and create collages. So we both picked up lots of tips from each other. Photoshop is expensive to purchase, but there are a lot of online resources that you can work with, including a new fave, Photojojo, and Rasterbator.

One of the photos we talked about for its composition and its content was this one. It looks like a contemporary bowl, but in reality, it is from the 1800's and was used for dairy products. The photograph looks like a 18th century Dutch still life with the contrasts of light and dark, as well as the clear lighting.

Preakness Party

Despite all that's been going on with my father, I managed to pull off the Preakness party on Saturday. I went to the farmers market first thing in the morning to get the salad ingredients and some other things, then off to another market to get breads for the bruscetta. Then to the hospital for a while with my mother and brother.

Then from there, to the real grocery store to pick up the booze for the Southsides, good cheeses and some staples. Final stop was the local city market for thick butcher-sliced bacon for the tenderloin and some black-eyed susans. I was briefly prepared to paint the eyes of the flowers like they do for the blanket of flowers at the Preakness. Zipped back home to make the cupcakes, which were mini and had black-eyed susans piped on them in lurid yellow, with brown centers (it's green and red that you combine to make brown icing). I made the salad and then my superhero friend, Dog, came to the rescue and came over and cooked the tenderloin for me. He poked around the cabinets in the kitchen and found some ingredients for a brilliant sauce. I set the table with a hot pink tablecloth, and used parts of my collection of willow-ware in blue and pink. I had gorgeous blue napkins with went wonderfully with the willow and contrasted with the hot pink. Lots of glassware, with only one broken! After I barricaded Connor, aka Houdini Dog, upstairs and everyone began arriving, it was time for the fun surprise to arrive, too. I had arranged to have a pony tethered to the tree in front of my downtown city rowhouse when the guests arrived. It was hilarious to see their reaction to Cash the pony, courtesy of Tony, in front of the house.

Then it was time for the featured race... I had almost fainted when Curlin's jockey took a fall in an earlier race, but he was ready for the big race. I had printed out slips of paper with each horses' silks on them, along with their post position. We went for the big purse, with each person chipping in the grand sum of $1.00. And they're off... and Curlin won!!! Much excitement and cheering and to the winner went the spoils of $9.00.
Here's an excerpt from the post-race interview with part-owner of Curlin:

Q: George Bolton, as a Baltimore native, can you discuss your feelings winning the Preakness?
GEORGE BOLTON: It is a dream come true. I grew up on a farm that my father owns, only about ten miles from here, across from St. Timothy's School on Greenspring Avenue. So very close. The team was all there last night.
You never think you are going to ever be in a race or win a race like this. This is something that is very surreal. The Derby was surreal. The Arkansas Derby was surreal. I am just very proud to be associated with this group, and to win a race ten miles from my father's farm is a great, great honor.

After leaving the hospital, my brother had a chance to spend some time at the Bolton's farm with the families, who were all in town for the big race. This has been a nice bit of fun during a very trying time for our family. Congratulations to George, his partners and to Curlin. Well done!