It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Santa has dropped off a whole pile of delightful objects at the Marc Kitchen-Smith Ltd Depot - all perfect for (almost) last-minute Christmas presents!

We have an eclectic range of prints available. These Victorian colour lithographs from an early 20th century children's book are framed up in tulip wood and ready for suitable wall space. These are being sold individually rather than as a set, so shoppers can just choose their favourites!

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If you are into 1960's/70's psychedelia, then make sure you put these great fish plates on your Xmas list. They are great fun, and really deserve to be appreciated as pieces of wall art rather than being covered in a Mornay sauce!

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We tend to buy old children's toys based primarily on their aesthetics, and so this rocking horse is certainly a good example. Made of beech wood, and dating from the 1950's, it has been constructed to create the most beautiful and graceful lines: minimalist and totally functional.

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Traditionally-made, wooden children's toys are immensely popular. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a BIG wooden toy train under it! Or is that just nostalgia? Anyway, it seems most of our customers buying them on a regular basis, are WELL beyond school age, and one particular celebrity chef is using them to decorate his restaurants!

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The original owner of this beautiful home-crafted doll's house was a lucky lady indeed. Dating from the late 19th century, this is a simple and elegant piece of folk art. It oozes bags of character, from the scalloped shingle roof, to the carefully fret-worked staircase, making it totally unique and now elevated from toy to a lovely example of country folk art. We suggest it is adored for its decorative qualities, and played with sparingly!

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This delightful object is for the 'collector' of all things fine and rare. An exquisitely made Victorian miniature doll's rickshaw. Dating from about 1895, and made of a painted hardwood, it is in superb condition and could well have originated from one of the British Colonies such as India or Hong Kong.

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OK, who thinks of Rudolph when they see antlers at Christmas?  This splendid 14pt set of antlers, are ready mounted on an oak plaque, and ready to be hung above the mantlepiece above the stockings. They make the ideal home for your flashing Christmas lights and/or the odd bauble...

 

Browse our stock online or in real life at LASSCO Brunswick House in London or LASSCO Three Pigeons in Oxfordshire.

Merry Christmas!

There's no place like home

It's good to have things around you that just make you feel at home. A smattering of chintz and a decorative touch never did an interior any harm (no matter what a renowned Swedish homewares chain might have us believe)...

Lighting is one of THE most important things to get right in making a house (or flat) a home. We spotted this quirky-looking oil lamp at a West Country farm sale. The application of a bit of imagination repurposes what originally looked like a (slightly battered) three-legged alien lifeform into something rather more domestic.

 

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We've given it a respray, converted it to electric, and rewired it with a contrasting burgundy flex to make it look a bit more contemporary.

  

We are very choosy about the tables we buy, but this 19th century gate-leg table had all the right qualities. Made of pine, rather than the more common oak, it retains all its layers of old paint, giving it that much sought-after patina of age.

  

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This is a very practical space-saving piece of furniture, worthy of any home, old or modern.

 

'Simple yet elegant' best describes this Oxford framed mirror. Made of pitched pine, and decorated with small brass rosettes in each corner, it is nice example of the late Victorian Gothic style.

 

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It has been repainted and clear-waxed. It takes it's place in our eclectic current stocklist of mirrors.

It was the beautiful vintage fabric on this relatively simple folding three-panel screen that caught our discerning eye.

 

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The lovely printed linen features classical swags, ribbon bows, and puttis astride dolphins - very much in the 18th century style, despite dating from the late Victorian/Edwardian era. The little bits of wear to the fabric simply enhance the antique qualities of this piece of furniture. It may even earn the dreaded 'shabby chic' label. A boudoir essential!

How cute are these? A pair of vintage carved wood bookends, in the form of two patient terriers happily standing guard over your favourite set of books.

 

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Originally produced as tourist souvenir items in the Alpine/Black Forest regions of Europe, they are carefully crafted in wood with inset glass eyes. We have a few examples of these, all with slight variations in size or pose (including one set of dachshunds!).

Trunks, chests and blanket boxes are always popular, functioning as characterful storage devices or as coffee-tables or side-tables. This one is a particularly classy example of a 19th century pine blanket box, retaining its original external green-black paintwork and, remarkably, its original Victorian lock and key.

  

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We have given it a fresh coat of paint internally and clear-waxed the exterior.

A Place for Everything

Over the past month, we've been busy working not only on getting new batches of stock ready for sale, but also on completing some essential maintenance work on our workshop. Appropriately enough, a large proportion of some of our most recently acquired delightful objects began their lives as well-loved, and well-used pieces of furniture in other peoples' workshops.

Sourced from farm sales and from house, shed and garage clearances, these handmade items of furniture are unique. Often they are of a bespoke design, made specifically to maintain order in the countless collections of nuts, bolts, screws, nails and prize tools that workshops have the tendency to generate.

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Even in a supposedly 'paperless' office/home, somehow there are still endless bits and pieces that we want to keep out of sight yet in glorious order. Makes sense then, to try to do this as stylishly as possible. How convenient that having lovely sets of industrial metal drawers, pigeon-holes, wooden filing cabinets and banks of drawers will do just the job.

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The design and construction of these pieces makes them reliable and practical, but we maintain that it's their great original paint and colour finishes that really elevates them to being beautiful pieces of furniture. Invariably they were painted, touched up and repainted with the 'odds and ends' of paint found left over in paint cans around the workshop, and it's this patina of 'making do' that we like to hold on to.

Industrial metal cabinets and racks are always popular for their clean lines and modern finish, but we do like to retain some of their original paintwork if possible. Where it isn't possible, they look equally stylish after a light burnish to remove rust and grease.

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We can't think of any practical reason why someone would design, and go to the considerable trouble of building, this unit - we've never seen diagonal drawers before! This quirky design reflects an inventive design mind, and shows how the humble workshop cabinet can be realized as an original, yet simple, piece of furniture.

Each drawer is divided, so it was clearly designed with a specific purpose in mind.

A place for everything, and everything in its place!

Bon Voyage!

First blog of 2011 in February?!? Rather 'slow off the blocks', no?

Not at all - as the country has been dragged reluctantly from the super-long Christmas/New Year break and into 2011, (well done everyone for making it through January, the bleakest month of the year), we have been busy gathering up some excellent ranges of stock, the first batch of which is featured here for your delectation and delight.

High on the list of favourite activities for January has to be planning a whole new set of travels and adventures for the year ahead. Not sure if travel by steam liner is up there on your list, but the travel apparatus of yesteryear doesn't half make for some interesting home accessories.

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Vintage luggage looks great, and whilst may not be totally practical in the 'budget airline weight restrictions' sense, it can still have a whole host of practical uses, namely as extremely stylish storage.

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We couldn't resist these two fantastic ex-Services shipping trunks. They are of American manufacture, and date from the 1940's. And boy were they built to travel. Solid timber, with steel reinforced edges and corners, they come with thick leather carry handles, and a substantial brass lock. Fortunately for us (and for whoever becomes their next lucky owner) we have the keys for both of them.

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The reason they look SO good of course, is down to the patina of age. There's sixty years' worth of wear and tear, evident in the remnants of luggage labels, hinting at some of the exotic locations they have travelled to: Buenos Aires, Paris, Maidstone (?).

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Oh, and did I mention, we managed to fit in a trip to Brussels over New Year, to get our mitts on some eclectic and fabulous treats including a great opaline 'starburst' light, and a range of striking African masks? Watch this space....