What seperates "golden era" from "midcentury"?

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
It’s also playing a large role in how class lines are drawn. I fear that by expanding on this we might be venturing into forbidden territory, but I trust that the gist of it is clear enough.

I enjoy learning, in settings formal and informal. I once said that if I could afford to I would go to school for the rest of my life. But that’s been 30 or more years ago now, when I was even then considerably older than “college age.” I’ve since become skeptical of much of what the academy imparts. We need people versed in matters best learned in colleges and universities with high standards (no one wants a doctor educated at a diploma mill), but the proliferation of speculative BS emanating from so many academic departments leaves me thinking that they exist mostly to perpetuate themselves.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The investigative journalist John Keats (not the poet, settle down English majors) wrote a book in 1965 called "The Sheepskin Psychosis" that predicted pretty much everything we see today, in that the overemphasis on college credentials in the business world was being used to create a self-perpetuating caste system that had nothing to do with actual abilities or qualifications, and everything to do with "social expectations." Keats saw this happening sixty years ago, and he was frighteningly accurate in what he warned would be the result.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
A piece in the November issue of The Atlantic titled “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” is not just another “kids these days” story but rather an examination of how distractions (smartphones? check) and the ubiquity of “information” have left young people lacking the patience and discipline to get through lengthy texts. It’s not that they’re incapable, of course, but they are unpracticed. That’s become somewhat true of me as well. I still read pretty much constantly, but rarely do I read a lengthy tome cover to cover anymore.

My Dear Old Ma studied physics and chemistry and Latin in her public high school. (That’s been more than a few years ago now, it must be acknowledged.) She’s very likely better versed on such matters than most recent graduates of our elite colleges and universities. It sometimes seems as if the aim of higher education — for the students and the academy itself — is to generate the academically credentialed, whatever might be lost toward that end.

 

[polarWhite]

^^^^^^
Thonet, the Austrian company most noted for its ubiquitous bentwood “bistro” chairs, got into manufacturing tubular steel chairs designed by the likes of Mart Stam, Marcel Breuer, and Mies van der Rohe. (And the often overlooked Lilly Reich.) Thonet‘s manufacturing with tubular steel commenced in 1930 and the stuff is still being made, a mere 94 years on.

Trends come and go. The popularity of this stuff waxes and wanes, too, but it’s never been “outdated,” to use one of my least-favorite words. Chances are excellent you’ve plopped your own sweet behind on a Cesca chair (the one second from the right, with the cane seat and back), with armrests or without. Breuer designed it in 1928 and it’s been knocked off by the millions pretty much from the git.

View attachment 643138

Evidently, Breuer was inspired by the tubular steel frame of the Adler bicycle to come up with the idea of using tubular steel for the furniture.

Breuer is one of my favorite architects/designers and the original Whitney museum is simply hauntingly and quietly breathtaking.

I spent a day at Bauhaus in Dessau years ago and it was one of the highlights of my trip in Germany.

 

[tonyb]

Evidently, Breuer was inspired by the tubular steel frame of the Adler bicycle to come up with the idea of using tubular steel for the furniture.

Breuer is one of my favorite architects/designers and the original Whitney museum is simply hauntingly and quietly breathtaking.

I spent a day at Bauhaus in Dessau years ago and it was one of the highlights of my trip in Germany.

There was some legal wrangling between Stam and Breuer over the tubular steel frames and the cantilever chair. Stam said he was inspired by the folding tubular steel-framed jump seats in an automobile. And Stam’s chair came first.

I’m a fan of Breuer’s work as well. There was something downright serendipitous going on at the Bauhaus over its short lifespan. All those talented people rubbing off on one another was beyond extraordinary. The Bauhaus is still very much with us, to the chagrin of some and the delight of others. I’m not a fan of everything it produced and promoted, but I‘m certainly in the latter camp.

 

[polarWhite]

There was some legal wrangling between Stam and Breuer over the tubular steel frames and the cantilever chair. Stam said he was inspired by the folding tubular steel-framed jump seats in an automobile. And Stam’s chair came first.

I’m a fan of Breuer’s work as well. There was something downright serendipitous going on at the Bauhaus over its short lifespan. All those talented people rubbing off on one another was beyond extraordinary. The Bauhaus is still very much with us, to the chagrin of some and the delight of others. I’m not a fan of everything it produced and promoted, but I‘m certainly in the latter camp.

That reminds me of the situation between Eames and Bertoia on the wire chair. Though some suggested that it originated from the design of the Eames LCM and DCM when Bertoia was working at Eames.

The Bertoia diamond chair in particularly the wide diamond is gorgeous and ergonomically brilliant. I had many visitors who thought it can't be comfortable but then were pleasantly surprised once they sat on it. I find myself admiring my Bertoia wide diamond chair with the accompanied ottoman over my Eames 670/671 most of the time.

They are weightless, airy, and so effortlessly elegant and practical.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
I had the opportunity several years ago to buy vintage Bertoia wire side chairs, with the seat pads, for $250 each, if memory serves. The seller told me he got them, hundreds of them, at a government auction in Georgia and that it stretched his finances to buy them and then transport them a couple thousand miles. Had I known of that auction I might have been tempted to stretch my finances, too.

I’ve read that Bertoia parted company with Eames over what he considered the theft of his wire chair idea. I’ve also read that Eames’s near total refusal to credit anyone working in his office for their original ideas led to hard feelings and the departure of some.

Eames was, by several accounts, a serial philanderer. He was cheating on his first wife with his second wife and — wouldn’t you know it? — he cheated on wife No. 2 as well.

So Charles Eames saw to it that Charles Eames got taken care of, first and foremost.

 

[polarWhite]

^^^^^^
I had the opportunity several years ago to buy vintage Bertoia wire side chairs, with the seat pads, for $250 each, if memory serves. The seller told me he got them, hundreds of them, at a government auction in Georgia and that it stretched his finances to buy them and then transport them a couple thousand miles. Had I known of that auction I might have been tempted to stretch my finances, too.

​

I’ve read that Bertoia parted company with Eames over what he considered the theft of his wire chair idea. I’ve also read that Eames’s near total refusal to credit anyone working in his office for their original ideas led to hard feelings and the departure of some.

Eames was, by several accounts, a serial philanderer. He was cheating on his first wife with his second wife and — wouldn’t you know it? — he cheated on wife No. 2 as well.

So Charles Eames saw to it that Charles Eames got taken care of, first and foremost.

I had similar experiences over the years.

Academia undergoing renovation, corporate offices relocating and such.

Disposal or liquidation of all the old furniture including Eames chairs in various colors and bases, George Nelson action table and shelving units, Florence knoll credenzas and other gems.

That was before "Madmen" was aired and the whole MCM fever didn't quite start yet.

I was very happy to save them from going to the dumpster and cherish and share them with others who appreciate their beauty and significance in the design history.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
I know of a kinda down-at-the-heel hotel with loads of “name” furniture. I suspect it’ll be demolished rather than renovated. I’m keeping my eye on it, as I suspect many others are, so I doubt there will be screaming bargains to be had there.

 

[polarWhite]

^^^^^^
I know of a kinda down-at-the-heel hotel with loads of “name” furniture. I suspect it’ll be demolished rather than renovated. I’m keeping my eye on it, as I suspect many others are, so I doubt there will be screaming bargains to be had there.

Good luck with that! The hunt can be quite intoxicating in a very good way.