Wine, Women, and Song

This gorgeous goblets are ready to provide the ladies and libations, all you need is to add the vocal accompaniment. 

These whimsical wine glasses with shapely sylph stems are from the Cambridge Glass Company, introduced in 1931 as the #3011 Figure Stem Line (later rechristened by Cambridge as Statuesque). At the height of its popularity in the 1930s and 40s, some 28 different items featured these curvaceous stems in a wide variety of colors, as demonstrated by this image from the Cambridge catalog. 

By the early 1950s, as Cambridge faced financial difficulties in a market flooded with mass-produced glassware, the line was reduced to eight offerings. The company, originally founded in 1902 in Cambridge, Ohio, closed in 1958. 

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

15944-632

 

Amazing Uchikake

This gorgeous golden garment is an uchikake, a formal Japanese kimono worn by the bride in a traditional wedding. The heavily embroidered garment is an outer robe worn over the bride's wedding kimono. The uchikake is worn open without a sash, known as an obi. It is padded and the long hem is meant to trail gracefully on the ground.

Uchikake are embroidered with auspicious symbols. This stunning example features cranes embroidered in silvery-white against the golden brocade. Cranes mate for life and in Japan are considered symbols of love and loyalty, most appropriate for a wedding gown.

A second silken uchikake is in vibrant red, In Japan, the color red was deemed to keep away evil spirits and symbolized peace and family prosperity. It is the color featured prominently at festive occasions. 

This uchikake also features cranes, but in origami form. In Japanese folklore, cranes were said to live 1,000 years and became a symbol of long life. Folding 1,000 paper cranes, known as senbazuru, is thought to bring good luck or grant a wish; it also can be a prayer that someone who is ill regains their health. Senbazuru was popularized throughout the world with the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who, at two years old, was exposed to radiation from the WWII atomic bombing of Hiroshima. She subsequently developed leukemia and, while hospitalized for her illness at the age of 12, began folding origami cranes, hoping to complete 1,000. Although a popular book depicts Sadako as dying before completing senbazuru, with her classmates stepping in to the fold the final cranes, her family has stated that she not only reached her goal, but exceeded it by some 400 cranes. Sadako died on October 25, 1955. She has become a symbol for world peace and a statue of Sadako holding an origami crane stands at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

17364-79, 80

 

See You Later, Ligator. . . .

. . . . in a while, crocodile!

But you won't want to wait to see this beautiful vintage Italian purse. Elegant, yet sizable, this drawstring tote combines high fashion with utility. 

The haute handbag comes with its original dust bag, which carries the name of "Acutis Pelletterie."

Inside are two tags, one engraved "Piero Acutis Made in Italy" and the other, with an image of a crocodile, states "Ligator di Vero Coccodrillo," which translates to "ligator of crocodile skin." Ligator is a process in which genuine crocodile or alligator skin is treated, dyed, polished to a high gloss, then backed with leather. The Acutis Pelletterie was founded in 1942 in Turin (Torino). A family-run atelier, Acutis soon gained a reputation for craftsmanship and the use of fine and costly materials. However, the third generation did not want to continue in the family's leather goods business; the company was subsequently purchased by another Italian premium leather company, Trakatan, which combines the traditional craftsmanship of Acutis with modern design.

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

17404-9

Amber Waves. . .

 . . .but of glass, not grain. This one-of-a-kind handblown vase seems to shimmer with its own internal light.

The vase carries the engraved signature of Todd Hansen and "AOF 07." "AOF" stands for Art of Fire studio. Founded in 1984 by Foster Holcombe and Theda Hansen, the studio moved to its current location, a re-purposed dairy barn in Northern Montgomery County, Maryland in 1999. Hansen joined the studio that year. He was not only a skilled glass artisan, but a teacher as well, giving classes in glassblowing as well as posting on-line videos about his art. Born in 1962, in Garland, Texas, Hanson died in 2025.

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

Send in the Clowns. . .

But where are the clowns?

Quick, send in the clowns

Don't bothеr, they're herе. . . .

Stephen Sondheim, "A Little Night Music," 1973

And here they are, a trio of marvelous mid-century vintage clowns by the Universal Statuary Company. 

                    

The Universal Statuary Corporation was founded in Chicago in the 1930s by brothers Jack and Leo Lucchesi. Originally the company produced hand-painted plaster piggy banks, wall decor, plaques, and store displays. By the 1950s, the company developed a proprietary resin composite marketed as "FiberClad InFrangible," and produced iconic mid-century modern designs, such as lamps, often in matching male and female pairs. The company made a wide variety of decorative statuary, plaques, and book ends, including Western and Asian themes, circus characters, and children or animals, varying from elegant atomic-age design to cute and kitschy. In the 1960s and 1970s, its products were popular home decor, but the company was sold in the early 1980s.

The clown bust is also marked with the name "Glenn Richardson." Born in 1930 in Chicago, Richardson was a painter, sculptor, and product designer. Returning to Chicago in 1953 following his military service, 

he attended the Illinois Institute of Technology and subsequently began his art career as a designer and modeler for Plasto Lamp Manufacturing Company. He also worked as a freelance designer and sculptor for a number of companies. In 1971, Richardson joined Haeger Potteries and eventually became their chief designer He also pursued his own art career, including painting and drawing. Richardson died in 2018. 

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

820-392, -393, -394

 

A Brooch Beyond Reproach

This big beautiful antique brooch in shimmering sterling is the epitome of art nouveau design, featuring a lovely lady framed by her flowing tresses and sinuous flowers. Art nouveau was an artistic movement from the 1890s through 1910s that looked to nature for inspiration and is exemplified by undulating lines, giving the feeling of movement. It was a reaction against staid academic art and the overdone and eclectic Victorian decor. The term, meaning "New Art," was first used in the 1880s, but was popularized by the opening in 1895 of the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, an art gallery in Paris. 

The brooch has a "C' clasp, so-called because the pin is held closed by a simple curved piece of metal; this type of clasp is generally found on jewelry from the 1850s through the 1910s, before the safety clasp came into wide use. On the back, the pin carries the intertwined "U" and "B" mark of Unger Brothers, surrounded by the words "Sterling 925 Fine."

Unger Brothers was founded by Herman Unger and his four brothers in the early 1870s. The company is renown for its intricate and beautifully crafted art nouveau sterling jewelry, as well as dressing table sets , perfume bottles, pocket knives, cigarette cases, belt buckles, and other luxury ware. Unger Brother was sold in 1919.

Ah, by my Computations, People say. . .

  Reduce the Year to better reckoning?—Nay, 

 'Twas only striking from the Calendar 

 Unborn To-morrow and dead Yesterday.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Translated by Edward Fitzgerald

Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), a Persian astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher, is probably best known in the Western world for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a book of poetic quatrains attributed to Khayyam as translated by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. However, Khayyam calculated the solar year with extraordinary accuracy and designed a solar calendar, which was the basis for the Persian calendar that still in use today. It is therefore tempting to think that the distinguished Arabic gentleman sitting by the calendar in this unusual antique is in commemoration of Khayyam, but it is more an example of Orientalism in the decorative arts.

    The Middle East has long held a fascination for the West, which often viewed it as a decadent dreamland ruled by sultans surrounded by dark-eyed harem beauties, where slave girls danced in shimmering veils and markets offered rare spices and jewels. Antione Galland's 1709 translation of One Thousand and One Nights engendered a passion for the exotic East as imagined by westerners, with Arabic and Persian inspired images appearing in operas and plays, art, architecture, fabric, and furnishings. This was dubbed "Orientalism." By the mid-1800s, the Middle East became more accessible to Western tourists and Orientalism in art and decor promised an imaginary respite from the proprieties of Victorian life. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Austria became the center of many foundries and ateliers producing finely crafted artistic sculptures in bronze and spelter. These workshops created works, often in miniature, covering a vast variety of subjects, from animals, genre and classical scenes, comic subjects, erotic themes, and, of course, Orientalist images. Some of these sculptures were purely decorative, a way for the owner to subtly project wealth and taste, but others, like this beautifully-crafted calendar, also has a functional purpose. Cast in spelter, the piece is lavishly decorated in polychrome. Although unsigned, it is very typical of the Orientalist pieces produced in Austria. 

All posted items are for sale at Next-to-New, but things can sell quickly!

17201-123