Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts

Friday, 8 November 2013

A Scandinavian Sojourn

For a variety of favourable logistical reasons, we found ourselves on a flight to Gothenburg the other week, heading for a week of treasure-hunting.

The best time for hunting of course is summer, with the long days and plenty of barn sales (or 'loppis', as the Swedes refer to them) open for business.

From our base near Stenungsund, on the beautiful Bohuslän coast of Sweden, and despite it being the wrong end of summer (i.e. autumn!), we managed to plot a packed agenda of treasure-hunting. We revisited some of our favourite haunts, and found some fantastic new ones.

A rather picturesque lunch stop

The beautiful Bohuslän countryside

An industrial storeroom in Munkedal



The treasure that got away - not one for us!


A Swedish still-life study

Roaming the countryside definitely provided good hunting ground for treasure, but inspiration in the form of colours, design and graphics, also came in from a bit of sightseeing - both in Gothenburg and indeed the local supermarket...

Haga district, Gothenburg


He's SUCH a delightful object! (and sadly NOT for sale)


A bit of 'shabby chic', Gothenburg-style

'Fika' (coffee break) joint in Haga district, Gothenburg




Beautiful architecture in Gothenburg

Celebrating Scandi-cake style


One of many hundreds of 'pick 'n mix' offerings at the local supermarket

Those Swedes love their sweets

Vintage-style graphics

Some beautiful graphics on crispbread packaging

Within the space of five days, we accumulated chandeliers, desks, industrial side tables, rustic dining chairs, filing cabinets, vintage globes, dress mannequins, wooden children's toys, industrial anglepoise desklamps and a variety of vintage hooks and hat-racks.

Frenzied packing and organizing ensued - some of the items are already at LASSCO Ropewalk for sale (a vintage Scandinavian globe, a retro Danish chair), others are being prepared for sale at our Cornish workshop, and some of the larger items will be making their appearance on the shop floor next year.

Sign up to our newsletter to keep track of when these Scandinavian treasures are due to appear!


Globes, globes, globes (and a rather beautiful tambour-front cabinet)


At our logistics, um, depot/HQ

A giant abacus

A child's rocking horse


Thursday, 4 October 2012

All Things Bright and Beautiful

How can you spot a 'Delightful Object'? Well, it might be its age, design, patina, functionality, or sometimes simply its colour. An object's colour can reflect both the era in which it was produced and the market it was produced for. Maybe it was advertising a product, or catching a child's gaze in a toy shop window. Here are some of our most vibrant items in stock at the moment...


Originally designed by the infamous Robin Day for furniture makers S. Hille & Co. in 1963, these polypropylene stacking chairs are iconic pieces of design, seen everywhere from schools and hospitals to restaurants, cafés, and airports.





They've been so successful, they've never gone out of production, merely evolving with subtle design changes. These vibrant child-size examples were known as the 'E-Series' designed for educational establishments in 1972, and their size graded by a letter of the alphabet alongside the Hille trademark underneath the seat. The orange ones here are a 'B', whilst the blue ones are very small nursery school size 'A".



What could be more dramatic than that (terribly British) red/white/blue combo? We always try and have a few framed vintage Union Flags in stock - they make such great, vibrant wall decorations. This large framed flag is over four feet wide, and was brought back from one of our trips to Canada. It's in perfect 'tatty' condition - complete with authentic faded edges and the odd tiny rip or hole.



BIG and BRIGHT RED! We love these vintage homemade wooden toy trains for dressing our showroom. They add an essential colour accent to a minimal monochrome scheme, which is probably why they sell so quickly... or is it that they tap into people's nostalgia for a long-lost childhood?


Funky, red, AND with shiny bits! We just had to buy this child's sledge when we saw it on one of our trips to Sweden. A basic yet sophisticated child's sledge dating (we think) from the 1950s - it's crude steering mechanism pivots the front left or right. Whether it ever sees any snow is questionable, but hey, it looks great just to have it to look at!




We bought these two enamel signs because of their great graphic qualities. Using the classic Automobile Association black and yellow colour scheme, they combine deco-style patterned borders with bold '50's typography. They really are in nice condition too!!



It was particularly beautiful teal blue that this old 1930's pine stepladder had been painted that meant we simply had to have it! It's a sturdy number, and as you can see it makes an excellent bookshelf.


No prizes for guessing what this nifty bit of advertising was selling. Worthy of being framed, this gorgeous 1940's cardboard advert in the shape of a bar of Palmolive Soap, is still as vibrant as the day it was printed.



Saturday, 3 March 2012

An eclectic offering

A selection of our latest stock for your perusal...

We found this Scandinavian office chair on one of our trips to Sweden last year.


Dating from the 1950's, it is made of worked steel and moulded maple-veneered ply. A very stylish and practical piece of furniture, it swivels with an approximate 6 inch rise-and-fall, whilst the back-rest also swivels but with the added bonus of the angle of tilt being adjustable.


The metalwork has been lightly burnished, and then sealed with a clear wax.


A set of vintage, lightweight tubular steel sack wheels, dating from the early 20th century.


When we first saw these, covered in rust, we saw their potential in those brilliant red wheels with solid white tyres. After burnishing the metalwork, we sealed the metal frame with a clear wax.


We are always on the look-out for unusual items of stock, and this vintage poultry incubator certainly fits the bill.


Dating from the early part of the 20th century, possibly 1920's, 'The Hebditch' must have been the bees-knees of farmyard technology in its day. Entirely constructed out of pine, with brass hinges and fasteners, it was built to last.


We have slightly modified it to make it more practical for the home. It has been thoroughly cleaned, the original racks replaced with solid shelves, and an internal paint, now make it an attractive table/storage unit.



We've been working with our local blacksmith Wilfy Sleep to produce some new furniture inspired by some of our finds. This steel shelf-unit has been made-to-measure to utilize two original 1930's panels of black glass.


We then gave it a couple of coats of contrasting green paint to compliment the glass.


This coat rack uses some vintage schoolroom hooks, which we've mounted onto a fragment of a reclaimed packing case from the 1940's.


Some objects deserve to be described as works of art, no matter how common, practical, or mundane they may at first appear. This certainly applies to this beautiful set of Slazenger bowling balls from the 1920's/30's.


The 8 boxed balls are made of Lignum Vitae, one of the densest, hardest, woods in the world, and are separately numbered with dots of bone or ivory set into the wood surface.


The box that houses them bears the retailing mark of A.W. Gamage Ltd, a Victorian department store that once dominated Holborn, in London, until 1972.


A Deco-looking lamp made from a converted farmhouse Tilley Lamp. Dating from the 1930's, it still retains most of its original chrome plating, but some of the underlying brass has rubbed through after many years of use. It has been rewired and given a new shade.