Friday, June 2, 2017

A Vintage Server in Blue

I'm calling this wonderful mahogany piece vintage, but it may very well be antique. I'd date it at riiiiiight around 1920, though it could be as early as 1915. It's dancing just at the centennial mark, though it hardly shows its age. It's kind of neat, I think, that design has changed so little in the last hundred years. I wonder about the first owners of this gorgeous server, part of a dining room suite. Were they a young couple, newly married, moving into their first home? What did their home look like? I own a few copies of Better Homes and Gardens from the early 1920s, that era being of special interest to me as my own little cottage in East Hampton dates to 1923. The rooms were usually formal, with dark wood furniture, though bold splashes of floral wallpaper kept the spaces airy and inviting. This dining room suite may very well have started in a home just like my own, though somehow I suspect it's first place was somewhat larger and fancier. My dining room is 12x12, humble to say the least, and this piece, with its compact sophistication demands a grander abode.
           I'm still desperately sick with the cold from hell, but I've been trying my damndest to catch up with work, not the least a dining set that's proved particularly trying. Exhausted from coughing all night every night since Sunday, I needed a little mental break, and this server was it. It hasn't been spoken for yet, so I went ahead and re-did it the way I felt most fitting; a pale blue with just a hint of warmth to it, maybe a smidge of aqua, the top sanded stained, and sealed rich saturated finely grained mahogany. The bright brass hardware was too busy and fussy, so I toned it down with a patinated copper tone. And finally behind the doors a handsome shade of dark amethyst.
          It's the perfect day for this piece, Sunny, mild, June, everything blooming and green and healthy (the author not withstanding). This is the sort of piece that lives in June, it carries a bit of June around with it wherever it goes, whimsical, ethereal, elegant, and judging by the fact that it's a hundred years old, and just as relevant and lovely as ever, timeless.







4 comments:

  1. Nice! Hope you feel better...

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  2. I also have like this, but I put it in my yard. My house just got into water damage and I didn't my vintage server has a molds and just let it in side. But it gets more molds and don't know how to mold removal. So I just let it be.

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