The Current, Vol. 4 by urbanelectric

Cover: RAMESSES II AND NEFERTARI VALLEY OF THE KINGS, EGYPT Inside Front Cover: ELDORADO LANDSCAPE ZUBER, RIXHEIM, FRANCE Inside Back Cover: KIBBLE GLASGOW,PALACESCOTLAND Back Cover: WHITE AND GOLD DAMASK ZUBER, RIXHEIM, FRANCE

THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO. PRESENTS

THE CURRENT

VOL. 4

The world around us is elemental. Material. Constructed from both natural and manmade components that shape our physical and psychological landscapes. In this edition, we focus on the importance of the tactile tracers that connect the dots between past and present, future and possibility, then and now, here and there. From glass to wood to stone to textiles, the four materials contained in this volume come alive through the makers who learn from their composition and wield wonder from their construction. The journey of producing Volume 4 has taken us around the globe and back again to discover the intrinsic value in the treasures—manmade, manufactured or found and excavated—that give meaning and lend beauty to our lives.

CUMBERLAND ISLAND TO RIXHEIM 46

GLASS 168

AMANDA LINDROTH: INSPIRED BY LYFORD CAY 252 A Postcard from The Bahamas

CONTENTS

PAIGE CLEVELAND 72 To Live and Dye in L.A.

TEXTILE 34

SYLVIE JOHNSON: INSPIRED BY PARIS 68

A Wallpaper Mystery in Two Parts

Inside an Intrepid Artist’s Sketchbook

KIBBLE PALACE 182

Under the Dome of a Scottish Architectural Wonder

STONE 84

WOOD 218

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 100 Cutting a Path from Cairo to Carrara with Magd Riad

Finding Beauty in the Texture of the City

STEVEN GAMBREL 156

9THE CURRENT, VOL. 4

CHARLES FLICKINGER 206 Finding Clarity on the Brooklyn Waterfront

GERALD BLAND 258

The Storied Career of a Gentleman Antiquarian

JILL HOOPER: INSPIRED BY EGYPT 118

SARA COSTELLO: INSPIRED BY NEW ORLEANS 202 Through the Looking Glass

JAMIE HAMMEL 232 What’s Old is New Again

A Polished Perspective

WINSTON ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY KATIE ROSENFELD & COMPANY PHOTOGRAPHY BY READ MCKENDREE / JBSA

MALPLAQUET BENJAMIN MOORE #1558 FIELDSTONE PAINT SELECTION FINISH BRONZE PARTIALLYACCENTSETCHED GLASS INTERIORS BY TAYLOR BORSARI INC. ARCHITECTURE BY KAA DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARYN MILLET

FORME ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH ANTIQUE BRASS ACCENTS BLUE ACRYLIC PANELS INTERIORS BY M.S. VICAS INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY BY STACY ZARIN GOLDBERG

GARRISON WALL HEIRLOOM FINISH MODERN MIRROR INLAY PARTIALLY ETCHED GLASS GARRISON HANG HEIRLOOM FINISH PARTIALLY ETCHED GLASS INTERIORS BY CAROLYN MILLER DESIGNS PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAM FROST

For more from our journey, see page 100.

At Saqqara, the site of ancient Egypt's oldest surviving stone pyramids.

We’ve been excited to make this book for nearly two years now. And though we produced another volume in between, these stories certainly were never hibernating— the opposite, in fact. They grew richer, more nuanced, ripe for exploration precisely because the incubation period brought out the good stuff.

Which is why for this book, when we were able to travel again and focus on ideas and spaces not immediately within our own eyesight, we appreciated the experience that much more.

Like every edition, it is a true labor of love—something the inspiring people, places and hand-hewn products featured in these pages epitomize each and every day.

FOUNDER’S NOTE

19THE CURRENT, VOL. 4

most enigmatic and expert makers and those inspired by them, but also highlights the link that the pursuit of those materials creates between people and places (with a nonlinear path all the more interesting for the detours).

BUILDING BLOCKS

Missing from that list of foundational materials, notably, would be metal—the one we work with most frequently. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t covered mettle of a different sort: the bonds forged internally here at Urban Electric. For us, the tenacity of our team—the men and women whose hands and spirits illuminate your spaces— is the secret ingredient worth celebrating.

I'm so thrilled to introduce you to the fourth volume of The Current, a return to globe-spanning stories, yet told in completely new ways with completely new subjects. From New Orleans to New York, Los Angeles to Lyford, Basel to Milan and Glasgow to Cairo, this edition not only chronicles the manifestation of materials—glass, wood, stone and textiles—rendered by some of the world’s

Dave SeptemberDawson2022

SOLID BRASS BARS BUILDING 56, THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO. TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2022 9:32AM

WHAT WE ARE OF

22 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4

While our material medium is primarily in the realm of copper and brass, our collective mettle is something much stronger. It’s a bond forged in commitments made to each other and cemented through creative challenges endured and overcome day in and day out. So often intangible, vibrating beneath the surface, we attempted to capture this unassailably black and white quality and its inherent contrasts in the place where our own material journey begins, Building 56, the longtime home of our machine shop.

MADE

BRITT PAPENDICK

BEN AYDLETT

ARI AMIRI

MISSY HULSEY

DESIREE INGRAM

YOLANDA WEATHERLY

SEAN DUBE

DONNIE DRIGGERS

JACOB KENT

WILL MOORE

MARIO ALSTON

ERICA RUSNOCK

TONY PRETE

CHANDLER REIGART

SUNNI MACIAS

FRESH PAINT IN THE MARBLING TANK RULE OF THREE STUDIO, LOS ANGELES FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021 12:36PM

TEXTILE

TEXTILES ARE TIME STAMPS RENDERED IN FIBER. WHETHER RAW THREADS OR FINISHED FABRICS, THEY ANCHOR A WORK OF ART IN ITS MOMENT OF CREATION, DEFINE THE TONE OF AN INTERIOR, LEND WARMTH AND CHARACTER TO EXTERIOR SPACES AND KNIT THE WORLD AROUND US INTO A UNIQUE TAPESTRY OF PATTERNS, COLORS AND TEXTURES—A TACTILE REMNANT OF A TEMPORAL EXPRESSION.

SOLID BRASS EMBOSSING DIE ZUBER & CIE — RIXHEIM, FRANCE THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2021 3:44PM

BETTY SHADED PENDANT ANTIQUE GILT FINISH ANTIQUE GILT ACCENTS CUSTOM FABRIC SHADE TRANSLUCENT ANTIQUE MIRROR ON CLEAR GLASS BEN ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH FARROW & BALL NO. 43 EATING ROOM RED PAINTED WOOD INLAY CUSTOM FABRIC SHADE INTERIORS BY PAMELA BLACK INTERIORS / SLD INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY BY STACY ZARIN GOLDBERG

REX TABLE HEWN BRASS LACQUERED FINISH WITH POLISHED BRASS LACQUERED ACCENTS INTERIORS BY ANGIE HRANOWSKY, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA LYNN

40 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

SAMANTHA

TODHUNTER DESIGN ARCHITECTURE BY HOLDEN HARPER PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN BOND

HUNTLEY ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY

REX FLUSHMOUNT POLISHED BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH POLISHED BRASS UNLACQUERED ACCENTS BELLE MEADE POLISHED BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH WHITE PAPER SHADE INTERIORS BY REATH DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURE JOLIET

THADDEUS POLISHED BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY ELIZABETH COOPER INTERIOR DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY READ MCKENDREE / JBSA

45THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

CHP ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH WITH ANTIQUE BRASS ACCENTS AND TRANSLUCENT ANTIQUE MIRROR ON CLEAR GLASS SYMON POLISHED BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH WITH ANTIQUE BRASS ACCENTS AND WHITE PAPER SHADE INTERIORS BY AMIE CORLEY INTERIORS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEY GIESEKING

A journey from PLUM ORCHARD to ZUBER and back again.

On a remote barrier island off Georgia’s Gold Coast, a Gilded Age estate harbors a century-old mystery—and all of the clues to solving it point to a set of historic monuments beneath one of France’s fabled wallpaper houses.

Thousands of miles off of Cumberland’s pristine beaches, across the Atlantic Ocean in a picturesque town along the border of France and Switzerland, is a place equally steeped in tradition, equally unmarred by the passage of time. And the link between these two worlds is the stuff of both legend and lore, and a mystery we, and they, are only beginning to

48 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

Our curiosity was first piqued on a tour of Plum Orchard, the Island...CumberlandfamilyCarnegieseaton

was first piqued on a tour of Plum Orchard, the Carnegie family seat on Cumberland Island, now overseen by the Department of Natural Resources. Gesturing toward a wall just inside the main entrance, which served as an office and library, a tour guide recited a litany of design details cobbled together through the years; the wallpaper, he said, is suspected to be from a fabled French house called Zuber & Cie, the oldest surviving wallpaper manufacturer in the world, a master of the craft since 1797. The wall covering’s surface contains signature aspects of the company’s work, which in the absence of formal documentation of the origins, he believed, served as evidence of its provenance.

Ourunravel.curiosity

What followed was a chain of events that revealed more than just the connection between two legacy institutions. Beyond setting out to solve “The Mystery of the Wallpaper,” our year-long, bi-continental tale of two landmarks took on deeper resonance, revealing how the human story behind buildings and places and the traditional handcrafts that emanate from them shapes history in unforeseen ways. Like that relic of wallpaper, it leaves an enduring imprint of artistry and craftsmanship.

Though this generational lore certainly seemed credible given the wallpaper’s aesthetic hallmarks and the fact that it was frequently used in the great houses of the time, it had yet to be confirmed, and furthermore, Zuber and its team of archivists halfway across the world had yet to weigh in on the matter. The possibility of linking these iconic places together was too irresistible–we had to at least try to verify the source.

umberland Island is the kind of place that feels neither old nor new, just present. Like Cuba, with its retro cars and mid-century aesthetic, it’s as if time has been suspended and the trappings of life and landscape that date a place have been crystallized in an amber-like resin, a spell from these enchanting oaks. In many ways, this is true. This Georgia barrier island is a protected National Seashore, its lush wilderness accessible only by ferry. Here, the only traffic is day-tripping hikers and bikers and the island’s packs of wild horses; the only buildings are the homes of the extended branches of the storied Carnegie family, who first owned and later entrusted the island to be used for public education and enjoyment. The preserved landmarks of glory days gone by reflect a liminal moment, when development and much of the impact of outside influence ceased to breach these shores.

The wallpaper in the parlor at Plum Orchard on Cumberland Island that began the journey to Zuber.

Moss-draped oaks punctuate the remnants of a brick covered walkway that once connected Greyfield, the island's main inn, to a series of outbuildings.

The main entrance to Zuber's headquarters in the French countryside.

he day after arriving in Basel, we set out to meet Guillaume Tregouet, Zuber’s Burgundyborn, Paris-based creative director at the workshop slash factory in Rixheim, France.

“There is a layer of pine, but the real magic is in the top layer which is pear wood.” Guillaume said of the sculpted plates that are prized for their fine grain structure. “It holds designs of endless intricacy.” Unrivaled in their detailed approach, many of the company’s signature depictions can utilize over a thousand individual blocks and take up to a year to produce.

Rixheim, France

museum featuring murals of Zuber’s legendary designs, scenes of iconic historical pastorals, what we were really searching for—and hoping for a rare opportunity to see first-hand—was behind the scenes and largely inaccessible to the public: The cellar housing the company’s archive of 150,000 hand-carved wooden blocks.

THE LEGENDARY ELDORADO PATTERN.

GUILLAUME TREGOUET.

Passing through the arched entry of the disarmingly picturesque stone-clad structure, a former knight’s commandery in medieval times, we began our tour. We were led through four floors filled with craftsmen, all wielding highly specialized tools and fixtures, employing hypnotizing techniques—a symphony of dozens of patterned layers are pressed in one corner, synchronized brushstrokes are applied in unison in another—culminating in the gallery-like scene of mid-process sheets of drying wallpaper on Butdisplay.evenamidst all of this beauty, including the public

More than just a company treasure, Zuber’s blocks

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE 53

STENCILED TYPOGRAPHY ORGANIZES THE WOODBLOCK CATALOG.

54 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

is dizzying. That these blocks endure, and in this immense volume, is a marvel. It’s hard to fully comprehend that these time-worn wooden blocks bear not only the indelible workmanship of the human hands that carved them centuries ago, but also of the craftsmen who continue to deploy them daily today.

ZUBER WATERMARK WOODBLOCK.

were recently designated a historic monument by the government of France. And they are unparalleled; no one who has glimpsed the wallpaper or maintains even the most superficial knowledge of the craft can fail to appreciate the commitment and craftsmanship represented in this collection. But seeing them up close, stacked floor to ceiling and wall to wall—well, it’s truly awe-inspiring.

Because of such artistry, it’s easy to understand why Zuber’s workmanship was prized among the prominent and wealthy and adorned stately homes in early America, from New York to New Orleans.

Each block is numbered and stored on metal shelves marked only by hand-lettered labels denoting the contents of each stack. Contrary to the basement’s relatively small square footage, it feels vast up close. There’s not much room to move between the aisles, and it’s dimly lit toward the outer rock walls enclosing the entirety of the cellar, but the walkway in between the left and right shelving units runs the length of the space (from an ancient, now defunct door at one end to the opposite wall, bare save for a small fire extinguisher). From this central path, it’s possible to take in everything at

“Though they date back to the 18th century,” Guillaume explained, “they are made for more than just castles or châteaux in Europe. The scenes of Zuber go anywhere.”

To begin each new commission, the artists pull the blocks required to render their designs from the inventory and carry them by hand up the spiral staircase connecting the subterranean hold with the floor above.

Theonce.effect

Across the courtyard, another private space within the museum contains similarly impressive catalogs meticulously documenting where this work ended up. One look and it’s easy to see why Zuber has only just begun updating these archives in a more modern organizational system. (At the time of our visit, an intern, who had been working continuously for months, had only made it through the early 1820s.) Within these binders and reams of paper is a veritable history lesson in America’s obsession with wallcoverings, which hit a fever pitch in the 19th century.

Dozens of rows of individually numbered shelves contain the 150,000-piece woodblock collection.

Panels of a panorama: Decor Chinois, a pattern originally createdin1832.

57THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) AN ARTISAN PREPARING PANELS. STEP-BY-STEP WORK INSTRUCTIONS. EMBOSSING USING ZUBER'S PATENTED GAUFRAGE TECHNIQUE. EACH LAYER IS APPLIED BY HAND.

An island path. Aside from a few authorized vehicles, Cumberland is almost entirely pedestrian.

CUMBERLAND ISLAND, GEORGIA

hich brings us back to Plum Orchard. With the family’s support and hospitality, we returned to the island, embarking from the mainland aboard the Cumberland Queen

FAMILY MATRIARCH, NANCY COPP, IN HER SITTING ROOM.

Our first stop, under the stewardship of Hannah SayreThomas, a jewelry designer and Carnegie descendant who served as our tour guide, was a visit to Nancy Copp, granddaughter of Plum Orchard’s champion, Thomas Carnegie. She grew up visiting her grandparents at Plum Orchard and has fond memories of days spent visiting the estate when it was still exclusively a family home.

Nancy’s passion for the island is shared among her extended family who return often for family gatherings and to experience the sense of adventure and seclusion such a special place can provide. For Carnegie descendants now scattered in various cities across the country, it offers a respite and refuge from otherwise fast-paced lives and an opportunity to appreciate the stillness of nature. Exactly the kind of thing these original dwellings were intended for.

THE FRONT PORCH AT PLUM ORCHARD.

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE 59

Built in 1898, Plum Orchard was conceived as a winter residence with an emphasis on sporting pursuits from

“Oh, we just loved everything about it, mostly being together,” Nancy recalled. “By then, the family was large and spread

out and Plum Orchard is where we would all reunite. I remember spending so many days, usually in summertime, playing crazy made-up games with my cousins on the porch. This is the place of my childhood.”

THE SWIMMING DECK AT PLUM ORCHARD.

60 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

A FOYER AT A FAMILY HOME ON CUMBERLAND ISLAND AND WHAT IS BELIEVED TO BE ZUBER WALLPAPER.

There was an aunt, she said, in Paris! Who might have an unused roll from Plum Orchard that we could examine. For weeks we waited anxiously, imagining the beautiful irony of finding the missing puzzle piece in an attic in France, just a scant hundred miles from the fabled workshop from where it was created. Then the news came: The wallpaper was in the flat…but the flat no longer belonged to the family. The aunt had sold it years ago, and there was no immediate way to communicate with the current owners.

So this is where the mystery remains…for now. Unsolved, yet ever compelling. In fact, as we learned in our crosscontinental treks to try to unravel remnant clues, the satisfaction lies not in verification, but in appreciation. In being awed by the craftsmanship of the Zuber artisans, whose work is of such enduring beauty that it mesmerizes, centuries later, in dusty stretches on a sea island wall. We discovered in the overlap of these two worlds a shared philosophy: Preservation and protection, both of man-made and natural imprints, define a way of life across oceans and generations. This story is far from over. There is always another clue waiting to be discovered, another lead to pursue—and the next one could very well shed light on the true origins of the legacy that endures.

hunting to horseback riding. Later additions included an indoor swimming pool and an early version of a squash court.

A product of its time, an air of formality pervades thanks to preserved period furnishings first procured when Tiffany lamps reigned (some of the era’s finest examples can still be seen throughout). Intricate carved woodwork and parquet floors were de rigueur, and embellished, imported wallpaper was a dominant design feature.

“I think I’ve found a lead,” Gogo Ferguson, Hannah’s mother, exclaimed during a phone call shortly after our visit.

Neither Nancy nor any of the other family members we met on Cumberland could verify the wallpaper’s origins directly, but they all knew the story of suspected Zuber provenance and believed it to be true. Still, despite a day and a half of touring multiple Carnegie family compounds—and seeing a half-dozen other wallpaper remnants that could likely also be linked back to Zuber—we were left with only our suspicions. And then, just when we thought the trail had cooled and our mystery remained unresolved, a fresh clue suddenly emerged.

A portrait of Lucy Carnegie Ferguson in the wood-paneled parlor of The Greyfield Inn, the island's only public lodging.

62 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) OYSTER BUCKETS AWAIT THEIR CATCH ON THE CUMBERLAND SHORE. THE ELDORADO SCENE, REPRESENTING THE IDEALIZED LANDSCAPE OF FOUR CONTINENTS, USES 1554 INDIVIDUAL WOODBLOCKS AND 210 UNIQUE COLORS. WILD HORSES ROAM FREE ON CUMBERLAND. GUILLAUME IN ZUBER'S ON-SITE BRAND MUSEUM.

63THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) HANNAH SAYRE-THOMAS. SEARCHING FOR THE PATTERN. PLUM WALLPAPER IN PLUM ORCHARD. WOODBLOCK FAMILY.

Zuber's cataloged archive of patterns.

WHITBY POLISHED BRASS LACQUERED FINISH BENJAMIN MOORE KONA AF-165 PAINTED SHADE INTERIORS BY GRIFFITH BLYTHE INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY BY STACY ZARIN GOLDBERG

NEEDLES HANG DARKENED COPPER FINISH WITH ANTIQUE GILT ACCENTS AND SEEDED GLASS INTERIORS BY SEES DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATHAN SCHRODER

67THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

POSY DOUBLE FOUND BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

An enamelled box with an Asian motiff from Sylvie’s inspiration library.

POSY DOUBLE FOUND BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

Paris through s y lvie’s eyes: i N h er b e l oved city, she fi N ds i N s P i ratio N i N both the commo N (the fold of a N a P k i N at a favorite cafe) a N d t he P r ofou N d (the gra N d iosity of the louvre P a lace com P l ex).

POSY DOUBLE FOUND BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

dark a N d light sylvie sees P a tter N all arou N d

Likewise, her love of Paris, where she has lived since she was seventeen, is as deep and true as that of anyone raised solely in the City of Light.

“Beauty is not a place,” Sylvie says. “Beauty, especially as I see it—through the slant of a fiber angled just so in order to capture the best of the light in a room, for instance—that kind of beauty is fundamental. Essential. That’s what I’m focusing on…or, maybe, it’s focusing on me.”

we love, how we think, why we create—is bigger than each of us,” she says. “It must be. The definition of perfection doesn’t exist…but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth chasing wherever it leads.”

“FOR ME, LIFE AND WORK ARE AN EXTENSION OF THE SAME FORCE: THE CHAIN OF EXCELLENCE,” SAYS SYLVIE JOHNSON. “THE SAME STANDARDS THAT GO INTO MAKING ART GO INTO MAKING RUGS, MAINTAINING A FAMILY HEIRLOOM, PRESERVING CULTURE, EVEN REMAINING TRUE TO ONE’S AUTHENTIC SENSE OF PERSONAL WORTH AND CHARACTER. IT IS ALL PART OF A COMMON THREAD, BEGINNING IN ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUING STILL TODAY.”

CHAIN EXCELLENCEOF

“Paris speaks to me in so many ways—both quietly and loudly,” Sylvie says. She channels that creative energy fueled by Paris’s many whispers, many exclamations, into the designs she creates in her impeccably clean, organized and intimate workspace located on Rue Jacob, mere blocks from Boulevard Saint Germain in the Sixth Arrondissement on the Left Bank where she spends most of her time.

SYLVIE JOHNSON PARIS

What better way to get a sense of what Sylvie sees and is focused on, and as a result, what drives Merida’s singular vision, than a tour of some of her go-to inspiration

The Artistic Director since 2017 of Merida, the high-design rug manufacturer whose floor coverings are prized for their quality and texture, Sylvie was born in Dakar from a Ghanaian father and Senegalese mother and grew up between Senegal and France. Like her global roots, Sylvie’s tastes are universal in that they are anchored in quality, care and artistic intention.

“Everything—wheredestinations.welive,what

POSY DOUBLE FOUND BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

MUSÉE DELACROIX

“I love this place. Such a hidden gem. The light, the illustrations and texts that include Shakespeare and Byron—it’s just so elementally amazing. The workshop is dark while the garden is open, and the relationship between inside and outside, between settings that are natural and man-made, walls and windows, it’s just so, so incredible. My work is a similar kind of meditation, whether it’s the Saga collection, which was inspired by the music of Chopin, or the textiles displayed in one of Delacroix’s paintings, which perfectly situates you into a place and time.”

MÉMORIAL DES MARTYRS DE DÉPORTATIONLA

“Most people don’t come to Paris to visit the Holocaust Museum, but for me this is the most amazing place. Even to stand outside of it is a lesson. The architect, Georges-Henri Pingusson, was a modernist, a master of form, and the way the design of this building creates and makes use of shadows is incredible. I am constantly studying light and the perception of light, looking at the way it falls and how natural light plays against texture, and shadow is part of that, too. The fact that the museum is on the water is also important and adds another symbolic layer of meaning. It is a metaphor in many ways: Even in darkness, there can be beauty in reflection and that feels very powerful and apparent in Pingusson’s approach.”

It is truly the first art, and I think about the tradition of artisan artists—the weaver, the canvas maker, the person finishing a piece of stitching by hand. Even if it was done hundreds of years ago, it touches us now because it was done well, with a commitment to craft, which is something more spiritual. And this is what inspires me about Japan and this art. It’s about elevating yourself, creating for the sake of something bigger than one person or moment in time.”

“Everybody [who knows me] knows about my love for Japan, as an inspiration and as a great culture. It is the epitome of savoir faire. The Guimet not only celebrates Japanese culture but also the art that this culture made and makes possible: art by makers. These aren’t pieces you’re going to find in most museums around the world, and the work and the artists are not necessarily ‘famous’ in a traditional sense but they are just fantastic. I love a lot of artists, contemporary artists, but my principal focus is to go back to what textile was and what it means.

POSY DOUBLE FOUND BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

MUSÉE GUIMET

“This is Paris’s public garden. I spent a lot of time here when a friend of mine had a restaurant nearby, often on my way to the Louvre. The two are very connected for me—the inspiration I get from the play of light and dark, movement in nature vs. works on paper, the juxtaposition of shadow and pigment— is such a resource. I love the arcades and the trees’ dialogue. It's a design of its own.”

“I love to stop here for tea because it is a chance to properly view and appreciate Pei’s pyramid, which you can see from the terrace. When you are inside you can see the sculpture gallery of the Louvre. I love Egypt—my daughter and I went to Cairo in December—and it feels important to pay tribute to the pyramid (which is itself a form of architectural tribute!). Egypt is very inspiring to me. Without the ancient Egyptians—the way they worked the linen, cultivated pigments and acid—there would be no textile industry.”

LE CAFÉ MARLY

JARDIN DU PALAIS ROYAL

SYLVIE'S STUDIO

“I’ve been here for 17, maybe 18 years, and my company is 19 years old. The building is special to me for that reason, yes, and it is a classic from the 19th century, but it’s really the St. Germain neighborhood as a cultural center that inspires me. So many creative people have passed through here, from Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to Picasso, and it remains incredibly vibrant still. I love the vibe of being able to go outside and walk into an antiques dealer, see an exhibit, experience the energy of a museum. My work exists inside my studio, but I also spend time every week just exploring. This area has history and layers and is, at this point, core to my work.”

POSY DOUBLE FOUND BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP. 2

Colonnes de Buren by the French artist Daniel Buren, just after a rain shower, located in the inner courtyard of the Palais Royal, just outside of the Louvre.

POSY DOUBLE FOUND BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP. 2 THE CURRENT, VOL.4

GRAYFOY POLISHED NICKEL FINISH BLACKENED PEWTER ACCENTS LILAC INTERIORSGLASSBY SUMMER THORNTON DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS LOOF

PENCOMBE FLOOR HEWN BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH WITH FARROW & BALL NO. 289 INCHYRA BLUE ACCENTS AND SHADE HOCKNEY HEWN BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH WITH FARROW & BALL NO. 30 HAGUE BLUE ACCENTS AND CUSTOM FABRIC SHADE INTERIORS BY PAMELA BLACK INTERIORS / SLD INTERIORS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY STACY ZARIN GOLDBERG

71THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

PAIGE

GIFTED WITH AN INNATE SENSE OF COLOR AND PROFESSIONALLY TRAINED DURING A DECADE SPENT WORKING IN THE GRAPHIC AND FASHION DESIGN INDUSTRIES, THE ETERNALLY CURIOUS AND FEARLESSLY EXPERIMENTAL LOS ANGELES-BASED ARTIST IS APPLYING HER TALENTS TO TEXTILES AND EVOLVING THE TRADITION OF MARBLING IN THE PROCESS.

CLEVELAND

“MARBLING MESMERIZES BECAUSE IT TAPS INTO AN ENDURING AND UNIVERSAL INSTINCT TO TAME THE ELEMENTS.”

73THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE TEXTILE Luminary

commission as a fresh chance to coax a wild swirl of colors and dyes into an indelible imprint that speaks to a larger vision. To capture, in other words, a moment of free-flowing artistry and then freeze it in time.

hen Paige Cleveland attended a workshop in Los Angeles, to learn the ancient technique of marbling, she embraced the opportunity as an outlet for creative rejuicing at best and a meditative experience at least. After the first demonstration, however, the California-raised, Downtown L.A.-based designer knew she had initiated something much more profound: a complete personal and professional transformation.

Operating from within a spacious, secondfloor studio in the Arts District, Paige’s team of three (naturally)—comprised of Paige herself, plus Rule of Three’s longtime designers Emma Neill and Tina Cruz, who not only have mastered the technique but also run all of production in the studio—approach each new product launch, emerging collection or individual

She is also an aesthetic savant when it comes to engineering the materials and tools that facilitate and aid in production: shelves for cataloging the dyes she customizes, trough tables for swirling, ceiling suspension systems (complete with pulleys and rigs) for hanging and processing pieces post-marbling.

As evident in the wallcoverings and fabrics produced by Rule of Three, the art form’s appeal is both ageless and timeless. And the tradition continues to find fresh expression precisely because it is so deeply personal and satisfying. Or, as Paige explains, “Marbling mesmerizes because it taps into an enduring and universal instinct to tame the elements.”

02 01 03

Marbling’s allure spans centuries, from primitive cultures to the modern era. Though its official origins are disputed, the genesis of marbling and the techniques that inform Cleveland’s studio approach at Rule of Three can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty, around the 14th century. The process uses dyes, solutions of different permeability and solubility and traditional tools and hand movements to conjure intricate and organic patterns that are then applied to everything from paper, to textiles, to leather.

Given her background in graphic design, it seems natural that Paige would be drawn to marbling. Her uncanny eye for color and palette creation is fully realized as she takes inspiration from art history and the natural world, using traditional artistry to translate that into modern fabrics.

Yet despite the specificity and precision with which Paige and her team approach their craft—and the volume of projects for clients both domestic and global—there is, at heart, one overarching and guiding principle: Bring nature—organic, human, or otherwise spontaneously derived—to vibrant, fluid and authentic life.

Silks hanging in the studio awaiting their next step in the process.

TOUR DE FORCE

03 Paint-splattered clogs that the team all wears, formerly white Danskos.

04 Lou Lou Wall sconce shades covered in Rule of Three's Stone Plume fabric in Starlight Night. Interiors by Chassity Evans. Photography by Marni Durlach.

In Paige’s loft-style studio space, the artistry extends far beyond the marbling tank to every aspect of the production process, from the custom colors that are mixed using high concentrations of pigment to achieve richly saturated hues, to the hand-tied paint brushes made from bundles of broom bristles, to the intricate hanging systems and drying racks suspended from the ceiling.

07 Broom bristle paint brushes.

05 Marble wallpaper adorns Paige’s dining room.

02 Tina mixing ink in the color lab.

06 Clipboard-style fabric racks of their own invention.

07 01 Gently lifting a finished piece of fabric from the dye tank to dry.

And that’s why marbling can be deceptive, at least in terms of its expression as an art form. It can be easy to underestimate the complexities, which leads to a gap in recognition and respect that we hope to remedy as we take on and educate new clients and design partners. When people observe us working, they see a very fluid, very coordinated, almost dance-like, process, and it can appear “chill” or effortless to the observer. There is a lot to master, though, when it comes to the fundamentals; you have to first feel comfortable and confident in executing the actual technique of marbling and then master the skills and knowledge required to ap ply the color and patterns to varying materials—leather, paper, cloth. And even though we are always evolving and modernizing and playing with form and approach and experimenting, we still rely on a very precise set of principles to ground what we do. Experimentation can only happen with a foundation of experience.

We take inspiration from nature, from shapes and curves, from a beautiful view, from emotions and memories, from colors I respond to in the moment or might have loved in childhood. There are obviously established patterns and styles, and we study those, but we also invent our own sig natures just as often. Marbling is a perfect balance of the personal and subjective on the one hand and time-honored and established on the other. It’s an ancient craft, after all, and we are just part of a long line of practitioners carrying those traditions through history and filtering them through our individual points of view. Pretty amazing and hum bling when you stop and think about it.

What does the future look like for us? Exciting and wide open! I want to build on our momentum to continue to grow this business. I want to get a bigger studio, travel for inspiration and to expand my knowledge, bring in people to support Emma and Tina so that they can move up and continue to evolve professionally, too—I want it all! There are no limits to what we can do and how we can innovate.

The name Rule of Three comes from the idea of the mar riage of color, pattern and ‘ground,’ or material, that gets marbled. I love descriptors. I love threes. I love the way the power of three gets highlighted and magnified in writing, in design, in photography. It’s a theme that feels very suited to the technique-driven nature of what we do and how each component blends together to express something bigger and different but still cohesive and intentional. At its core, marbling in general—and certainly the way we approach it—is all about storytelling.

PAIGE CLEVELAND AS TOLD TO THE URBAN ELECTRIC Co.

77THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

Whether we are launching our own line, hosting friends for a bit of experimentation on a Friday afternoon, develop ing the creative vision for a textile collection that will pay tribute to a flight of fancy or an overdue creative homage or what have you, we are always starting, always stopping, always creating and installing, and always imagining how to observe the Rule of Three when there are so many rules left to both break and establish today.

My team consists of two other people—Emma and Tina— and they both learned marbling from me. But even though they had no previous experience, they are both artists and creative powerhouses in their own right and brought their own instincts and vision and palettes and ideas to bear. Emma is a painter who also has an incredible engineering mind—she designed and built most of the racks and rigs we use to treat and dry and finish the pieces in our collec tion. Tina has a background in product design and is an amazing photographer, and her eye for color and mixing— the alchemy side of the process—is incredible. We literally produce every color and make every tool we use, plus all of the equipment we require, right here in the studio, with our own hands. Our space is part design studio, part chemistry lab, part hardware store and workshop.

We translate the beauty of nature and the sincerity of the human hand into exquisite objects and surfaces. It’s like science and magic mixed into one beautiful art form. And, really, is there anything better than that?

There is an element of excitement and pride in sharing with our clients and collaborators how intricate our process is and what goes into the collection we have created and what ever new pieces we add to the line. Marbling is transfixing and meditative and addictive, but it is also work and we take our process super seriously.

It’s a technique that requires focus and hours and hours of training your muscles to do unnatural things naturally— and repetitively. So much of the magic lies in things you can’t see—the motion of the wrist; the willingness to step back and see the pattern emerging and then recognize what’s

arbling was truly the last thing I’d planned on pursuing, but even from day one, when I had zero idea about how to actually launch a marbling studio, I knew I had found my calling. I made it official in 2013 and have been exploring and pushing the limits of this studio ever since.

missing; the ability to then toss just the right amount of paint to land in just the right spot in order to take a design to the next level or finish it off. There’s real power in the subtleties of a craft like this.

LEATHER IN THE MARBLING TANK RULE OF THREE STUDIO — ARTS DISTRICT, LOS ANGELES FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021 12:54PM

THE HAND SCONCE HEIRLOOM FINISH INTERIORS BY SWOON, THE STUDIO, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF AUBERGE RESORTS COLLECTION THE VANDERBILT, NEWPORT, RI

80 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | TEXTILE

THADD BLACK FINISH MILK GLASS LANESBOROUGH ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH TRANSLUCENT ANTIQUE MIRROR ON MILK GLASS TRANSLUCENT ANTIQUE MIRROR ON COBALT BLUE GLASS ACCENTS INTERIORS BY KATI CURTIS DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS LOOF

CHILTERN ROUND ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH ANTIQUE BRASS ACCENTS UECO. SIGNATURE COLOR STORM GRAY PAINTED SHADES WITH HEWN BRASS UNLACQUERED INTERIOR INTERIORS BY CAROLINA DESIGN ASSOCIATES BUILD BY GERRARD BUILDERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY DUSTIN PECK

GRANITE QUARRY WHERE STONE WAS EXTRACTED FOR THE BASE OF THE GREAT PYRAMIDS ASWAN, EGYPT SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2022 4:33PM

BEWITCHING, CAPTIVATING, CONSUMING AND ANCHORING, STONES ARE THE LITERAL AND PROVERBIAL JEWELS IN MAN’S MATERIAL CROWN. WHETHER MINING FOR GEMS, EXCAVATING ANCIENT RENDERINGS, UNEARTHING MARBLE OR UNDERTAKING ANY OTHER ACT THAT DELIVERS ROCKS FROM THEIR MOORINGS IN THE GROUND, THE SENSE OF DISCOVERY THAT COMES FROM FREEING THESE ELEMENTAL RELICS FROM THE DEEP TO FIND A PLACE IN THE SPOTLIGHT OF OUR DAILY LIVES IS AS MOVING AS THE ITEMS THEMSELVES—AND PART OF THE ALLURE OF THE TIMELESS TREASURE HUNTS THEY INSPIRE.

BRECCIA CAPRAIA QUARRY CARRARA, ITALY MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2022 3:55PM

CANOPIC JARS HELD ORGANS LEFT BEHIND FOR THE AFTERLIFE THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM – CAIRO, EGYPT THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2022 9:09AM

PHOTOGRAPHY

POLISHED BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH WHITE LINEN

BIT WALL

INTERIORS BY BAILEY AUSTIN DESIGN BY KACEY

GILPIN

SHADE

92 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

CHILTERN SINGLE WHITE FINISH WITH HEWN BRASS UNLACQUERED SHADE INTERIORS BY KARINA PLOTKO INTERIORS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCO RICCA

CHP VINTAGE FINISH VINTAGE ACCENTS

FRANCIS

TRANSLUCENT

INTERIORS BY RACHEL SLOANE

ANTIQUE MIRROR ON CLEAR GLASS

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO BY KIRSTEN

PHOTOGRAPHY

DOUBLE ARM BELDI BLACKENED STEEL FINISH BRONZE SHADE EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR INTERIORS BY ERIN A. CANTU INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY BY VENJHAMIN REYES

HUNTLEY ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH WITH CLEAR GLASS INTERIORS BY CARTE BLANCHE, PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGELINA ALONZI MAISON VILLEROY, PARIS, FRANCE

96 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

GLASS

INTERIORS BY MUNGER INTERIORS BY ALLAN EDWARDS BUILDER

HEWN BRASS UNLACQUERED SILVERED

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL HUNTER

GLOBUS

FINISH

HEWN BRASS UNLACQUERED

INC.

BUILD

ACCENTS PARTIALLY

ANCIENT CEILING DECORATED WITH STARS KARNAK TEMPLE — LUXOR, EGYPT FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2022 9:39AM

ROCK

of AGES On the trail of ancient quarries, pharaonic feats and Earth's most imperial material with Marmi’s charismatic chief, Magd Riad. العصورصخرة A journey from CAIRO to CARRARA and beyond.

one is the limestone pyramidion coated in gold, the ultimate quadrilateral crown that reflected the rays of heaven. Gone is the gleaming skin of polished limestone from the quarries in Tura that turned pure geometry into a blinding desert iceberg. What remains, though, is the largest ever pile of stone, the core of the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at Giza, Egypt, the oldest and only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World. For nearly 4,000 years it stood as the tallest man-made structure on Earth. Aside from limestone for the main building blocks, the pyramid was larded with other stone: basalt from the Fayum Depression and alabaster from Hatnub near Luxor and red granite from Aswan lining the walls of the King’s Chamber.

FEARSMANTIME,BUTTIMEFEARSTHEPYRAMIDS.”

102 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

“

— ARAB PROVERB

Stone upon stone upon stone.

The ancient Egyptians were impressive record-keepers, both in stone and on papyrus, yet for all we know about 30 dynasties across 3,000 years, there remain profound mysteries. The Great Pyramid is perhaps the most iconic example: how did builders choose a site and know that what lay underground was strong enough to support such a colossal weight? How did they manage to orient the monumental form to true north and be off by only one twentieth of one degree? How did they not only phys ically put the blocks in place (and move them from the quarry) but cut the outer blocks so precisely that not even a knife blade could slip between the joints? In many ways, ancient Egyptians put the civilized into civilization.

One thing we know with absolute certainty: stone was as elemental to the ancient world as broadband is to ours. For Egyptians, the afterlife was paramount. If you wished something to last for eternity, you chose stone. Or as an Arab proverb succinctly puts it, “man fears time, but time fears the pyramids.”

This massive pile rests on the Mokattam Formation, a plane of limestone solid and stable enough to support the weight of 2.3 million blocks, each weighing on average two and a half tons. As staggering as this weight of blocks is, it’s the pace of construction that is dizzyingly incom prehensible. According to Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson, “builders would have had to set one 2.5-ton block of stone in place every two minutes during a ten-hour day, working without pause throughout the year for the two decades of Khufu’s reign (c. 2545-2525 BC).”

IMMENSE BLOCKS OF POLISHED LIMESTONE ONCE CLAD THE GREAT PYRAMID OF KHUFU.

Layers of stone at Saqqara.

Though Giza has grown up around the Great Pyramids, from certain approaches the view is as old as the monuments themselves.

The immense enclosure wall at Saqqara, with its endless niches, is as impressive as its stepped pyramid, the first built in Egypt.

tone is also fundamental to the life of Magd Riad, who would appear to fear nothing except for a dull time. As president of Marmi, a major supplier/ fabricator/installer of all kinds of stone for archi tects and designers in the United States, Magd travels the world to find just the right blocks and slabs for his clients. He may deal in all that’s hard and heavy, but you’ll not find a lighter, softer, more affable and entertaining fellow—his animated face is the antithesis of the stern phar aonic visage.

Egyptian, he too learns new tidbits because ancient Egypt, it turns out, is a land of surprises and discoveries.

THE DOOR TO THE AFTERLIFE, PRINCESS IDUT’S TOMB AT SAQQARA.

LONGTIME URBAN ELECTRIC DOCUMENTARIAN ANNE CHANDLER WITH MAGD RIAD, PRESIDENT OF MARMI.

Magd is no less a wizard at harvesting stone than he is at hosting visitors to his native land. Witness his arranging the

At the necropolis of Saqqara, for instance, recent revela tions keep coming: in 2018, the 4,400-year-old tomb of royal priest Wahtye; in 2019, hundreds of statues and mummified animals; in 2020, 52 burial shafts with more than 50 wooden coffins dating back 3,000 years and the funerary temple of Queen Nearit, the wife of King Teti, the first pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. And as recently as this past spring, five stone tombs of high-ranking officials that are even earlier, from the Old Kingdom (c. 2700–2200 BC) and First Intermediate (c. 2181–2055 BC) eras. Yet, of all of the treasure that has been unearthed over the past few centu ries, it represents scarcely a third of what lies below.

CAIRO, EGYPT

107THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

Magd was born in Egypt, and though he has lived in the U.S. for most of his life, his trips back are frequent, both to visit his father, an energetic retired general, and as an ambas sador for his native country. He has put together innumer able trips to Egypt for loyal clients, who inevitably become friends and for friends, like Urban Electric’s Dave Dawson, who become clients. As Magd introduces them to all things

108 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

EGYPTOLOGIST

FATMA ABDALLA, A BRIGHT GUIDING LIGHT.

ONGOING EXCAVATIONS AT SAQQARA CONTINUE TO DELIVER TREASURE.

To demonstrate the 54-degree “angle of repose” that the pyramids assume, Fatma gathered a handful of sand and let it leak slowly from her tightly closed fist. The pile it formed was the perfect pyramid, a simple illustration of nature as a design force. No wonder Fatma is equally adored by clients, curators, colleagues, security guards and common Egyptians who take pride in their history. Though she appeared only briefly on the telecast of the Pharaoh's Golden Parade, a grand procession celebrating the transfer of 22 royal mummies from the Egyptian Museum to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, she was greeted the next day like a conquering hero. It seems all of Egypt had seen her on TV. For a guide with 32 years of experience, it was welcome recognition.

trip's guide and guiding light, Egyptologist extraordinaire Fatma Abdalla. Armed with deep knowledge, unflagging enthusiasm and a brilliance in storytelling, she keeps us intrigued and entertained. If our focus strays, she corrals the wayward with a cheery “yallah!”; when all is understood, she proclaims “voila!”

...for all of the treasure that has been unearthed over the past few centuries, it scarcelyrepresentsathird of what lies below...

A row of cobras rises up to greet the great stepped pyramid at Saqqara.

Master builder Imhotep created not just a pyramid but an entire stone complex to serve as the necropolis for Memphis, the ancient capital of lower Egypt.

atma relayed information about pharaohs and deities, symbols and glyphs, architecture and painting, as well as about stone. In the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square, she made a beeline to the Narmer Palette, a finely carved ceremonial palette of gray-green siltstone dating from the 31st century BC. Cited as the first historical document in the world, it is thought to mark the creation of Egypt by depicting, in some of the earliest hieroglyphs, the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer.

113

Even better known than the Narmer Palette is the Rosetta Stone, a stele carved of granodiorite that exists in the Egyptian Museum only in replica. The original Rosetta Stone, prized for providing the key to deciphering hieroglyphs, lives ( like the Elgin Marbles) in the British Museum. However, the building of a monumental new showcase, in this case the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), makes an argument for repatriation. After multiple delays, GEM is opening this year as the largest archaeological museum complex in the world. There will finally be space enough to put on display all of the treasure that emerged from the tomb of a minor pharaoh, Tutankhamun. One can only imagine the embarrassment of riches that were robbed from the tomb of Ramesses II, a pharaoh who reigned 56 years longer than Tut.

MAGD RIAD INSPECTS A “CARPET” OF MANY MARBLES AT MARMI IN CAIRO.

114 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

MAGD WITH CLAUDE ABDALLA'S SON, GEORGE.

Marmi is a vast sampler of all that can be done with stone. Cut one way, a block of Egyptian alabaster yields slabs in a stripey linear pattern; rotated 90 degrees and cut another, the slabs burst into cloudlike blooms. For a memorial, lasers deeply etch calligraphic Arabic. A multi-colored carpet-sized slab reveals itself, on closer inspection, to be a composite of hundreds of different marbles cut and assembled to mimic an Azerbaijan rug. By the offices, a slab of Imperial Grey marble captures, in graphic Ed Ruscha lettering, Euripides’s dictum, “leave no stone unturned.” At Marmi, not a chance.

(continued on page 129)

LIKE FINGERPRINTS, EACH SLAB CUT FROM A BLOCK HAS A UNIQUE IDENTITY.

t times the talk of stone between Fatma and Magd was like call and response, each filling in the other’s gaps in knowledge. But in the Cairo stone yard of Marmi, Fatma surrendered her guide cap to Magd and to the company owners: the Abdalla family (no relation to Fatma). Between their two sites in Cairo and 40 quarries, the Abdallas have for 50 years been quarrying, sawing, polishing and processing more than 250 types of stone: primarily granite and marble but also onyx, alabaster, quartzite, travertine…the list goes on.

“Stone is like jewelry,” says Claude Abdalla, the family patri arch. “It can be common or rare but the strong colors— greens and reds— are like emeralds and rubies.” And as with contemporary gems, stone here is cut using, well, cuttingedge technology. Ancient meets advanced, with granite from the oldest continually operating quarry in the world, in Aswan, submitting to the diamond blades of a 21st century Italian gangsaw from Gaspari Menotti. Where it once took nearly a week to saw one block into slabs, now 60 slices can be cut in six hours.

RED AND BLACK GRANITE FROM THE OLDEST QUARRY IN EGYPT MEETS THE MODERN WORLD IN A SCULPTURE BY STEPHEN COX.

MANEUVERING STONE TAKES AS MUCH SKILL AS CUTTING IT.

SAWS WITH DIAMOND CHAINS SLICE THROUGH MARBLE AND GRANITE.

A FIVE-TON BLOCK OF MARBLE BEING CUT INTO SLABS.

Artist Jill Hooper using her pencil to visually gauge scale for a painting of a marble cutting machine.

Adept at rendering an expressive face in 20 minutes, Hooper easily nailed the likeness of a guide at a stone yard or men in conversation in a piazza. The monumental architecture

Jill Hooper

ARTIST not in residence

of Egypt, though, presented far greater challenges than portrait studies, especially working within the same time constraint. “It’s not just being mindful of perspective and proportion,” Hooper says, “but also trying to make it have life and vitality, as art does.”

Though Hooper typically spends a lot of time in the studio, either her own in Charleston, South Carolina, or those at the London Fine Art Studios, where she teaches master classes in composition, pen and ink, and oil painting, this time she was literally on the ground in Egypt and Italy, recording en plein air what ever caught her eye. Hooper always paints from life and looks the part of the artist–dressed nattily in a fedora and crisp white shirt with a kerchief at the neck. Seeing her at work, seated in the dirt, gave the curious onlookers their own sense of ancient history, a throwback to earlier times when drawings were the only way to visually record aston ishing sights.

here are always clusters of visitors in front of the Temple of Luxor, a 3,400-year-old complex around which modern day Luxor has grown. But this throng close to the majestic pylon was especially impressive. More than 50 people had gathered around, a silent crowd captivated by the act they were witnessing. At the center of it all was not a performer but still a magician of sorts, classical realist painter Jill Hooper.

Proportion came into play just as much with the colossal sculptures she encountered. “Initially I thought the Egyptians were naive about human anatomy,” Hooper says, “but far from it. The large legs and strong arms were just a reflection of everything pharaonic being larger than life. I was actually bowled over by the giant majestic sculptures and how much of an effect they had.”

Beyond the landscape, architecture and subject matter, however, it was stone itself that captured her imagination. Hooper was drawn to the subtle variations in color and texture, the endless nuances of its elegant veining. The challenge of rendering stone’s complexity in two dimensions, as she did so masterfully in the artwork on the following pages, she found both captivating and satis fying. “Being present physically makes all the difference in the world,” says Hooper. “I couldn't have gotten the same information by just googling any of it. You had to be there to understand it. See the textures, feel the heat of the sun, you know.”

129 ITALYCARRARA,—QUARRYCAPRAIABRECCIADETAIL,STONE

1 NILE STUDY 3

NILE STUDY

NILE STUDY 2

ENTRANCE AT SAQQARA — CAIRO, EGYPT

JILL HOOPER

STONE CUTTING FLOOR AT MARMI — CAIRO,

EGYPT

ITALYCARRARA,—QUARRYCAPRAIABRECCIATOROAD

Jill Hooper in her Charleston, South Carolina studio, with an oil painting of a rams-head sphinx at Karnak underway.

Rows of rams-head sphinxes, each protecting a pharaoh between its paws, flank the approach to the necropolis at Karnak.

TOWERING COLUMNS AT KARNAK ONCE LIVED UNDER A WOODEN ROOF.

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE 129

LUXOR, EGYPT

So supercharged is the scale that fifty people could stand together atop a capital. Every surface is embellished, either inscribed or carved into bas-relief, and with the largest columns reaching 69 feet high with a girth of 33 feet, the surface area is considerable. So all-encompassing is the decoration that it fairly disguises the seams between the massive disks of stone stacked to form the columns. Again, how did they build them?

or major building projects, the ancient Egyptians primarily used limestone and sandstone. Karnak sits in modern day Luxor (ancient Thebes) at the juncture of the two stones, with sandstone predominating as you move south. As monumental as the Great Pyramids are, Karnak is an architectural masterpiece, a demonstration of Egyptian construction prowess more complex than mighty. The largest temple in the world (the Vatican of its day), it dwarfs St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Over the course of 2,000 years, thirty successive pharaohs worked and reworked this complex on the east bank of the Nile.

What reveals itself more slowly than the magnificence of scale or the generations of bas-reliefs and inscriptions is the coloration. Just as the Acropolis was never white but in fact a highly polychromed temple, so too was Karnak not a sea of pale brown that blended into the landscape.The bright and deep colors that adorned the columns are less worn by time than hidden by dust and sand. When the columns are periodically cleaned, yellows, reds, blues and greens bring cartouches, figures and animals vividly to life.

Opposing rows of rams-head sphinxes followed by a vast forecourt lead to the Great Hypostyle Hall. A forest of 134 massive sandstone columns cresting in papyrus blossom capitals presents a cathedral of light and shadow, dwarfing travelers who play peek-a-boo around the column bases.

A GRANITE DOORWAY FRAMES A VIEW OF A WELL-PRESERVED COLUMN. 134 COLUMNS MAKE UP THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK. A STATUE OF A KING AMID THE PALMS.

130 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

PAPYRUS-SHAPED COLUMNS WERE CONSTRUCTED OF MASSIVE DISKS OF SANDSTONE.

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT)

The carvings and coloration of columns at Karnak are remarkably vivid, especially when cleaned of sand and dust.

None are more vivid and beautiful than those in the tomb of Nefertari, often cited as the Sistine Chapel of ancient Egypt. Her tomb is a testament, like the Taj Mahal, to eternal love, that of Pharaoh Ramesses II for his first and favorite queen, “the one for whom the sun shines.” Beneath a deep blue sky of a thousand painted stars, the richness of the afterlife and the beauty of Nefertari herself are rendered in exquisite and vibrant detail across 5,200 square feet of plastered surface. The intensity of colors more than 3,000 years old is due to mineral-based pigments. Unlike synthetic paints, they no more lose their color than gems, especially when tucked away in the dark.

For all of their liberal application of bright colors, painters made heavy use of black outlining, much as the kings, queens and notables dramatically accentuated their eyes, eyebrows and lashes. Once again, stone comes into play, in its minutest form. Makeup was derived from azurite and malachite ground to a fine powder for eye shadow and soot combined with the mineral galena to produce kohl for the heavily-lined eye synonymous with Cleopatra. Black shading both made for striking eyes and protected from glare. Think football players and Friday night lights.

133

n Egyptian with the Ministry of State for Antiquities has described Karnak as an archaeological ocean the surface of which scholars have barely dipped below. The same could be said of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, across the Nile from Karnak, where virtually all treasure lies beneath. The valleys are shielded by dry and dusty mountains snaked with forking paths and punctuated by deep portals to tombs. Just as impressive as the construction of monuments above ground is the extensive tunneling and hollowing out of rooms, all accomplished thousands of years ago using bronze chisels and adzes. Steep ramps and stairways in narrow tunnels deliver great reward: rooms embellished wall to wall to ceiling with striking paintings.

The Egyptians were excellent record keepers, even on the ceilings of tombs such as that of Seti in the Valley of the Kings.

HARVESTING WHEAT ALONG THE RIVERBANKS.

THE NILE IS A LINEAR OASIS OF PALMS AND GREENERY.

n contrast to the valley’s tombs—their heat and dust and the abundance of stone—the Nile brings a fluid gracefulness to this hard-edged land. The longest river in Africa, waterway of legend and civilization’s birth, the Nile is lifeblood to Egyptians, making irrigation, transit and tourism possible. And for travelers like us, its rich green banks and placid waters refresh and restore. Antony and Cleopatra honeymooned on the Nile in a gilded barge, but for modern day travelers, dahabiyas, with their limited number of cabins (8-10) and shallow draft, offer the most intimate and comfortable way to cruise the river, and none is nicer than the Eyaru, a new vessel low on kitsch and high on authenticity and amenities. Osama Boshra not only manages the boat but designed every feature down to the dining chairs with their lion legs, the tableware made in the pottery town of Garagos and djellabas of crisp cool Egyptian cotton for sale in support of single-mother seamstresses. At the buffet, traditional dishes like koshary and bamia bil lahma are always accompanied by Shamsi bread (traditional loaves left to rise in the sun), the very same as the offerings depicted in the wall paintings of Nefertari’s tomb.

136 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

Typical dahabiya tours cruise the Nile for three to four nights from Luxor to Aswan or vice versa. Though a far cry from the three months early tourists devoted to their Egyptian sojourns, our few days onboard are spent in much the same way, languidly touring sites not reached by bigger boats, napping, reading, playing backgammon, feasting and taking in the unfolding panorama of the shoreline. Atypically, this was a fast cruise to Aswan, though it afforded downtime in the cabins and deck-time digesting all of the insights gleaned from Fatma. We basked in Magd’s entertaining ways and observed painter Jill Hooper render quick watercolor landscapes. A lucky few even took a stab at painting under her tutelage.

THE NILE

The lateen sail of a felucca catches a breeze on the Nile.

for millennia.

A riverbank view unchanged

swan is where dahabiyas share the waters with a flotilla of feluccas, the traditional wooden sailboat rigged with lateen sails. The cluster of boats with sails hoisted created a view as seen from the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel that could be cast in sepia, so closely does it recall the Agatha Christie golden age of travel on the Nile in the early 20th century. Here we made our last stop in Egypt—a Marmi quarry nearby that is so fully situated in the heart of town that it can’t operate during school hours so as not to disturb the students next door. In the quarry, men were drilling deep parallel holes in order to release a chunk of stone from the mass, a technique much the same as ancient times, except pneumatic tools dramatically hasten the job.

Aswan granite was second only to sandstone and limestone as the most important stone used by ancient Egyptians, who used it for the smallest vases to colossal statues and obelisks. Carved from a single block of red granite, towering obelisks were erected in front of temples, usually in pairs, as guardians and in recognition of the value Egyptians placed on balance and harmony. Given the length and weight of the stone needles and the difficulty in erecting them—how that was achieved in ancient Egypt is still a matter of speculation—the degree to which they have migrated to distant shores is astounding. London and New York each have a Cleopatra’s Needle. Whether apocryphal or not, Josephine’s directive to Napoleon, “if you go to Thebes, do send me a little obelisk,” confirms the esteem accorded the form. Not one for small gestures, Napoleon's campaign delivered. A 75-foot-tall obelisk from the pair that Ramesses II originally erected at the temple at Luxor now guards the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

Egypt.

Obelisk at Karnak Temple, Luxor,

MINERVA OBELISK, ROME.

143THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

ut Rome is where one finds the lion’s share (or pharaoh’s share) of obelisks from ancient Egypt, not surprisingly, given that Rome annexed Egypt in 30 BC. Eight in total pin down some of the most significant piazzas in the Eternal City: Piazza del Popolo, St. Peter’s Square, Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, Piazza della Rotonda. Tasked with the job of erecting the 357-ton obelisk at St. Peter’s, Renaissance architect Domenico Fontana employed no less than 75 horses, 900 men and an endless supply of rope and pulleys.

FLAMINIAN OBELISK, ROME.

Roman taste in stone though leaned heavily to marble, and for that they discovered quarries in their own backyard–the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Nothing rivaled the purity of the white marble, Statuario, found here. For Michelangelo, it was the marble of his dreams, “of compact grain, homogeneous, crystalline, reminiscent of sugar,” and was his stone of choice for his Pietà and David. Like the great columns at Karnak, Trajan’s Column in Rome is also a towering stack of round blocks embellished with carvings, created from Statuario.

TRAJAN'S COLUMN, ROME.

ASWAN TO ROME

o numerous are the marble quarries above Carrara and neighboring Massa that the mountains look capped by glaciers. While most quarries are open-air, the one used by Marmi is internal, a cavity of vast damp rooms that feel only more ominous the more the stone is cut away and removed. The unnerving sense of the oppressive weight looming overhead is countered by the staggering vista from the forecourt—a skyscraping view of shadowy mountains stretching to the Ligurian Sea.

145

More marble has come out of the Carrara quarries than any other place in the world, and extracting it from a mountain will always be dangerous work. Stone may well be an eternal material, presenting an eternal test by nature to wrestle it for human purposes. Perhaps this is, in part, why marble remains so valued, so exalted, from ancient times to present day. The stone in the Apuan Alps has been around for some 200 million years, and though the very purest Statuario is largely tapped out, there remains at least 500 years worth of marble to excavate. For Magd this means only one thing: “Good,” he says, “let’s get to work.” To which Fatma would succinctly add, “Voila!”

The route to the top is as old as time and still as treacherous. When thousands of Roman slaves were quarrying here, it took one to two years to extract a block and bring it to sea level. Now the job of cutting is done in two days' time by as few as six men, using diamond wire saws, but the transfer down the mountain is still perilous. Truck drivers need to be as skilled as quarrymen to navigate narrow switchbacks and sheer drops with a payload of 35 tons at their back.

THE APUAN ALPS TUSCANY, ITALY MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2022 1:47PM

148 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

MARLBOROUGH HEWN BRASS LACQUERED FINISH WITH MIRROR ON COBALT BLUE GLASS INLAY AND PARTIALLY ETCHED GLASS INTERIORS BY BARBARA GISEL DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY BY DURSTON SAYLOR

HEDGES HEWN BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH FARROW & BALL NO. 255 TANNER'S BROWN ACCENTS INTERIORS BY LEIGH FALKNER INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL BLEVINS

CHISHOLM CLEAN BLACK FINISH HEWN BRASS LACQUERED ACCENTS INTERIORS BY HENDRICKS CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM LENZ

CHAMBERS BRONZE AHEIRLOOMFINISHACCENTSCREATIVECOLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

153

POP ROUND ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH WITH BENJAMIN MOORE #1120 HONEYCOMB PAINT SELECTION ACCENT INTERIORS BY SCOTT LASLIE

MALPLAQUET FLUSHMOUNT BENJAMIN MOORE #714 HIDDEN FALLS PAINT SELECTION FINISH HEIRLOOM ACCENTS INTERIORS BY STEVEN GAMBREL PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC PIASECKI / OTTO

AS ONE WOULD EXPECT, STEVEN GAMBREL’S LATEST PERSONAL RENOVATION PROJECT IS A MASTERCLASS IN MATERIAL. A TOP-TO-BOTTOM REVAMP OF AN 1854 BROWNSTONE IN NEW YORK’S WEST VILLAGE, THE GRAND SPACE SHOWCASES MANY OF THE HALLMARKS AND HISTORICAL REFERENCES THAT HAVE MADE HIM AN ESSENTIAL VOICE IN THE DESIGN WORLD. A SNEAK PEEK, AS IT NEARS COMPLETION, REVEALS THAT STEVEN'S LIBERAL USE OF STONE VARIETIES AND PERMUTATIONS IS THE TRUE BRILLIANCE.

STEVENGAMBREL

157THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE STONE Luminary

“WITH STONE, YOU'RE WORKING WITH COLOR, TEXTURE, NATURE, VEINING, PATTERNING, SO MANY VARIABLES.”

158 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE 02 01 03

In his latest, and he swears, last personal renovation project in New York City, Steven has indulged his utter love of stone with panache. Twenty-two different kinds crop up in nearly every room and elevate an 1854 Italianate brownstone with 13-foot ceilings on the parlor floor to an even loftier place.

“I viewed dense color as luxurious,” Steven says who, as a student of history, knows that before the development of chemically-produced paint, particular deep shades were indeed the provenance of the few and the privileged, as their pigments were derived from expensive natural materials.

teven Gambrel was always the go-to designer for interiors with strong, if subtle, historical references and even stronger color. Whether the dose of color was big (an entire room spectacularly “dipped” in luscious aubergine), medium (orange inset panels of a ceiling in a wood-paneled library), or small (bright red picture frames for a collection of black and white photographs), saturated color was a statement in every one of his projects and quickly became a signature of his work.

he has visited stoneyards far and wide, noted the use and handling of stone from the ancients to 20th-century architects such as Sir Edwin Lutyens and Piero Portaluppi and seems poised to join the ranks of the latter as his eye for, and skill with, stone becomes ever more refined.

Steven is still known for his deft handling of color but his palette has both evolved and softened as his career has progressed. He now more fully appreciates the luxuriousness of materials with heft and history—plaster, bronze, wood and stone. Materials with inherent coloration. While still enamored of the power of paint, it is stone that he studies and parses, lusts after and celebrates. Always an avid researcher,

In the main bathroom shower, grey onyx frames panels of one of Steven's favorite stones, Breccia Verde Seravezza, as well as serving as baseboard and chair rail throughout the room.

04 06 05

01 The final piece of a Black Levandia frame awaits installation atop a guest room fireplace faced in Portugal Pink Borba.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

A longtime collaborator with Urban Electric, Steven granted us access to capture, in progress, one of his most personal projects to date, his own NYC townhouse, as it neared completion. 07

03 Steven inspects a mantelpiece of Breccia Verde Seravezza and Bardiglio Nuvolato he designed for his bedroom.

04 Twin octagonal sinks in the main bathroom that appear carved from a solid block were masterfully pieced together.

05 A mantelpiece of Black Kilkenny marble in a guest room.

02 A bronze-framed shower door matches the elegance of Black Venato marble framing the doorway in a guest bathroom.

06 When Steven found the solid marble tub upstate, it was serving as a planter and buried under a variety of foliage.

07 A striking composition in Black Venato marble and Midnight Rose marble in a guest bathroom.

And then there is Umberto in my office who speaks Italian. To find special stones, we went on a fabulous trip to Italy with the principals of Liederbach & Graham Architects, who introduced us to an artisan who works in cubic blocks. The liberating thing about him is he simply doesn't have an issue, whatsoever, with how a block is cut. He can take a giant piece of stone and slice it and carve it up like he’s whipping up breakfast. He just does it. And that is how I ended up with a giant sink with ridiculous details in my house in the city.

I had this piece of Breccia out on the desk for weeks and tried pairing it with every stone we have in our sample library (and we have, thanks to the generosity of our vendors, well over 500). Then I went out to every single stone yard with my piece in hand, and I held it up to a hundred other pieces of stone. All along in my office, was a small sample of a piece of onyx that I had passed over because I find onyx sometimes to be too rich, especially when it’s polished. And this piece was really warm, verging on melted caramel. But every time we put it next to the Breccia, the pairing just worked. Together they were stunningly beautiful.

But in this case I was also pairing the stone with the extremely refined workmanship of brilliant Eliot. He’s a master at delivering a beautiful Roman finish, taking it from pitted to honed to sueded to this soft antique texture. And he knows how to get the best out of a block, to extract the best veining and still leave you with the lovely quieter slabs. I tend to use slabs with greater veining on horizontal surfaces and the quiet ones vertically.

Long ago I learned a valuable lesson, one of those happy accidents that is so instructive. There was a limited amount of a particular stone I loved that I wanted to use in a room so I had to start reducing its coverage on the walls. I ended up adding Venetian plaster, and the result was a better balance. Less weight physically but more importantly, less weight visually, and still a sense of dimension and materiality. That is the approach I took to my bathroom.

There's a certain kind of Breccia marble that I have always loved. You see it in great houses and palaces and monuments. It has a very noble kind of figuration, more of a blob-like patterning and less typical veining. I’ve used it a lot in its green and red colorations which are the most known. But for this house, I wanted an aspect of a palace from Milan from the thirties, and I was after a Breccia that was warmer, even though yellow is my least favorite color. With paint you’re working primarily with color plus variations in finish; with stone, you're working with color, texture, nature, veining, patterning, so many variables.

Beyond the pairing of the two stones, what I eventually realized was that every surface in the room (the border stone, the center stone, the plaster walls, the bronze hardware, the fumed oak floors leading to the bathroom) had to cancel the others out so that nothing spoke too loudly. And each needed to carry its own weight and measure up to the others in terms of materiality. Painted drywall is a weak link when you’re dealing with natural materials, especially this much stone. If you get every detail to a certain level, if you keep all your choices equally strong, if you keep the volume of quality and consistency up on every material, it actually quiets the whole story, it balances it.

In Italy we found this block of Breccia Verde Seravezza and it was exactly perfect. It’s spectacular, ancient, fabulous. I had a sample in my office, and I started trying to pair it because I knew I wanted a different stone for a border and baseboards. Had this been for a client coming in for their big presentation, I would have chosen this dark green stone

But the turning point for me was meeting Eliot Mazzocca of Lido Stone Works. He and I are around the same age, and we built our businesses at the same time. He’s a stone guy who is just wicked talented, but more importantly, he never says no to any detail. We build each other up. When you have someone like that in your life or in your career, the effect is you do better work.

inety-nine percent of my work, I would say, is about visual framing. I think of it as a way of containing things and working out proportion. And one of my favorite things to do is to pair stones. So the working out of the framing is my architecture and the pairing of stones is my art form. Stone is such a different medium. I go to a stone yard or to my desk and pull samples, and pair, for instance, a five-inch frame with the center stone it surrounds. And when we nail it, when it's right, it is extremely rewarding.

So much of my increasing involvement with stone comes down to people and resources. Now, with technology, slabs can be photographed straight-on instead of at an angle so you get a true picture of the character of the stone. And then with the computer and Photoshop, I can play around with the layout and alignment or juxtaposition of pieces with precision and relative ease.

Because I like my house to be the ultimate challenge, we went with the onyx. There are moments where the risk is high and this pairing was one of them. You know, it’s like when you see someone on the street and they will have on something like plaid upon plaid and a stripe in the plaid and you're like, whoa. There's a moment where it can work, but it can also fail deeply. Just like how you cut pieces of stone; if it's done wrong or if the finish is wrong, it's just a mess.

161THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE STEVEN GAMBREL AS TOLD TO THE URBAN ELECTRIC Co.

that we have. The pairing was completely beautiful except for the fact that it's not what I wanted. For me, the contrast was just too exaggerated.

Even partially finished, the main bathroom is a masterpiece of strong, natural materials (stone, plaster, bronze) coming together in an expression of utter elegance. A Birsley pendant from our most recent collection with Steven hangs overhead.

URBAN SMOKEBELL BRONZE TRANSLUCENTFINISHMIRROR ON CLEAR GLASS INTERIORS BY ROBERT RIONDA INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY BY KRIS TAMBURELLO

MARLBOROUGH POLISHED BRASS FINISH WITH ANTIQUE MIRROR ON CLEAR GLASS ACCENT INTERIORS BY FERN SANTINI, PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN

165THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | STONE

KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM GLASGOW, SCOTLAND TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2022 3:31PM

AN UPSTAIRS WINDOW IN SARA COSTELLO'S HOME NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022 11:47AM

CLEAR AS A BELL, AS LUMINOUS AS THE STARS, AS TRANSFIXING AS OCEAN WAVES AND AS REVEALING AS A CAMERA LENS. GLASS IS BOTH FRAGILE AND ENDURING, A SHIELD-LIKE LAYER OF PERSPECTIVE BETWEEN OUR EYES AND OUR VISION.

SWIRLED GLASS ON DISPLAY KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM — GLASGOW, SCOTLAND TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2022 4:43PM

THE CARNIVOROUS ROOM KIBBLE PALACE — GLASGOW, SCOTLAND THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2022 3:05PM

174 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

YVES FLUSHMOUNT POLISHED BRASS UNLACQUERED FINISH WITH POT WHITE GLASS INTERIORS BY MARY BETH WAGNER, ARCHITECTURE BY SHM ARCHITECTS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATHAN SCHRODER

CAMPION BRONZE FINISH ANTIQUE BRASS ACCENTS INTERIORS BY RAMSEY LYONS DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLE FRANZEN

BEIERLE-O'BRIEN

HALL KITCHEN

STAMP BLACK FINISH POLISHED NICKEL ACCENTS

INTERIORS BY BONESTEEL TROUT DESIGN BY CAREN RIDEAU BY MEGHAN

PHOTOGRAPHY

DOME WHITE ANTIQUEFINISHGILT ACCENTS INTERIORS BY AMY STORM & CO. PHOTOGRAPHY BY STOFFER PHOTOGRAPHY

179THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

JENNIFER WALL ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH INTERIORS BY SUMMER WILLIAMS DESIGN, KITCHEN DESIGN BY MARTIN MOORE DESIGN ARCHITECTURE BY ICON ARCHITECTS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK BOLTON

CHELSEA FARROW & BALL NO. 31 RAILINGS PAINTED FINISH HEIRLOOM ACCENTS CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY STUDIO SEIDERS BUILD BY MICHAEL DEANE HOMES ARCHITECTURE BY RYAN STREET ARCHITECTS PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN

Welcome to Kibble Palace, an otherworldly ode to all that glimmers and grows.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND STAKINGPANE

Daffodils bring a bit of welcomed color to an early spring day at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.

Pretty it surely is as one enters the 19th-century gates of the Botanic Gardens. The dingy sky brings color into bolder focus and creates a contrast that brings the scale of the surroundings into sharper relief. More daffodils flaunt their neon, interspersed with purple-blue iris. An emerald lawn encircles a Chilean Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana)—its sculptural whimsy like something out of Dr. Seuss—all crowned by a sprawling bank of yellow tulips, as good a sign as any that winter is officially in the rearview.

VICTORIAN DETAILING ON THE GLASSHOUSE SUPPORTS.

Its centerpiece dome dazzles like a zinnia’s many-petaled blossom in stark black and white. Here the fragile and the fecund interface, inanimate glass and graceful unfurling fronds coalesce. Beneath thousands upon thousands of humidity-frosted panes, light refracts into something newly alive. The glasshouse casts a spell, if you will, one that makes it a beloved Scottish landmark, and one that enchanted Ewen Donaldson, the longtime manager of the Botanic Gardens, decades ago and has shaped his life’s trajectory ever since.

he Glasgow sky is moody and gray—exactly as you’d expect. (“Glas” means grey-green in Brittonic; those Scots tell it like it is.) It’s early spring, and daffodils are starting to pop up out of the still cold ground, doing their best to cheer up this drizzly city, to shake off winter’s gloom. Here in Scotland’s largest metropolis, Glaswegians are famously friendly, and in the chilly dampness their warmth is welcome. As we wander past the West End’s elegant townhouses, in the shadow of the University of Glasgow’s 15th-century towers, one gent offers an unsolicited tip, pointing us toward a more scenic shortcut to our destination, the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

Even amidst the spectacle of the new season, the Botanic Gardens’ pièce de résistance is neither flora nor fauna but Kibble Palace, a glasshouse heralded as one of the United Kingdom’s architectural and engineering wonders. The palace is constructed solely of glass and iron, giving it the appearance of an immense lantern hovering over the eastern quadrant of the gardens. It, too, was planted here, with roots recounting a curious history. But after a century and a half, as the Botanic Gardens have endured varying seasons of bloom and decay, growth and dormancy, Mr. Kibble’s glasshouse remains a breathtaking specimen of Victorian ingenuity, now housing towering ferns and plant specimens from around the globe.

185THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

“Off to Kibble Palace are ya? Take this high road through the park. It’s prettier,” he says, his jaunty accent as thick as Scotland’s renowned peat.

started working here at age 23, and in 2021 retired at 66—that’s 43 years. That’s a lifetime, really,” says Ewen, the inflection of his words lilting up, smile like, his accent casting its own delightful spell. “I was brought up in a wee village about 10 miles north of Glasgow. A farm village, so I was used to country ways,” he explains. “I hated school, but then I discovered plants and gardening, and I went from hating school to loving it.”

“ We raised our family here. It was magical— at night my son and daughter had run of the place, riding their bikes all around. But I wouldn’t let them climb trees,” he recalls. weren’t“Theyhappy about that.”

What is known is that unlike most glasshouses built for horticultural purposes, Kibble built his as a showpiece at his home at Coulport on Loch Long, intended for use as a con servatory, or “pleasure palace” to host concerts, promenades and art shows. Kibble’s curvilinear glasshouse, with slender iron glazing bars and arched domes supported internally on cast-iron columns, was unique in the 19th century, and

Ewen’s deeply personal connection to Kibble Palace is fitting, as the glasshouse, built in the late 1860s, was a personal pas sion for its creator and namesake, John Kibble. A Victorian eccentric, dabbler, engineer and amateur photographer, Kibble is known for inventing a quirky floating bicycle that he reputedly pedaled across Loch Long, as well as the largest camera ever made. With a 13"-diameter lens and 44-pound plates, it was mounted on wheels and drawn by a horse. Perhaps his fascination with photographic glass plates led to Kibble’s interest in glasshouses, but “that’s speculation. We really don’t know that much about him,” Ewen says.

186 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

state-of-the-art engineering for that time. Beneath the soaring 150-foot-diameter dome, a pond encircled a 14-footwide sunken “chamber” or orchestra pit. “We discovered the drain while we were doing restoration,” says Ewen of the long-buried feature. “We called a technician in, and unbelievably, he got it working in 10 minutes.”

When he turned 15, Ewen’s mother showed him how to nav igate the bus route from his rural village so he could begin an apprenticeship as a gardener in Glasgow’s parks. “My mum insisted that I get proper training,” says Ewen. He first worked in the Botanic Gardens during his third and fourth year of instruction (1972–74) before continuing horticultural studies at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Ewen re turned to Glasgow Botanic Gardens as a junior manager in 1978 when he first became responsible for the glasshouses, including the Kibble Palace. “In 1992 I became the boss” says Ewen. He and his wife, Fiona, and their two children lived on the grounds in the ‘West Lodge’ gatehouse, just yards away from the Kibble Palace. “We raised our family here. It was magical. At night my son and daughter had run of the place, riding their bikes all around. But I wouldn’t let them climb the trees” he recalls, “They weren’t happy about that.”

“

Ewen Donaldson, Gardens Manager for forty-three years.

Raised beds, housing an array of flora, hug the perimeter of humidity-frosted glass walls.

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS 189

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) REFLECTIVE PANELS

ENCIRCLE THE DOME AT THE PALACE'S MAIN ENTRY. EXOTIC SPECIES IN THE CARNIVOROUS ROOM. BEHIND THE PALACE GLASS. A DEPICTION OF EVE IN MARBLE BY THE ROMAN SCULPTOR, SCIPIONE TADOLINI.

190 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

hat level of technological sophistication speaks to the innovations of the post Industrial Rev olution era in which Kibble lived. While glass houses for botanical use date to the 1600s, and stone orangeries even back to Roman times, the engineering of plate glass for large-scale use wasn’t feasible until the late 1840s. After Britain’s glass tax was repealed in 1851, glass also became more affordable. Both factors played into the rising popularity of glasshouses in the 19th century, a trend, no doubt, fueled largely by the famed, and immense, Crystal Palace in London. Designed by Joseph Paxton to house the 1851 Great Exposition in Hyde Park, the Crystal Palace covered 18 acres and incorporated 10 million feet of glass. After the exhibition was over, the massive structure was moved to Sydenham Hill in southeast London, where it eventually burned in 1936.

John Kibble agreed to maintain the structure and its con tents for 21 years, in exchange for a percentage of revenue from all “entertainments” presented there. In addition to bi-weekly concerts and promenades, the palace hosted major events including large flower shows and, notably, the installation of Benjamin Disraeli as Lord Rector of Glasgow University (the Botanic Gardens had been affiliated with the university since their inception in 1706 as the “Physic Garden,” for use in training physicians). In May 1874, Kibble Palace served as the venue for a four-day visit by American evangelists Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey, which reportedly drew overflow crowds of more than 7,000 (and necessitated draping the naked statue of Apollo).

Similarly, Kibble decided to move his personal palace not long after building it, and following a series of negotiations, he finally struck a deal in 1871 with the Glasgow Royal Bo tanic Institute (as the gardens were then known), in which he agreed to dismantle, move and re-erect his conservatory on the garden grounds. James Boyd and Sons of Paisley, a construction firm that had experience with glasshouses in England, Ireland and South Africa, oversaw the rebuilding of what was then called The Kibble Art Palace. It reopened on May 6, 1873, with a private preview featuring dignitaries and a guest list of 1,500. The following day, the Glasgow Herald reported on “this elegant structure” calling the “main Dome a magnificent circular expanse, flooded with light and by its harmonious arrangement of flowers and tree ferns and statuary, forming an interior of striking beauty….”

“This was a business enterprise for Kibble,” explains Ewen. “But unfortunately he proved difficult to deal with. And it didn’t help that acoustics in a glasshouse were, as you might imagine, problematic. There’s an echo in here.” After a falling out with the Royal Botanic Institute, Kibble sold his glasshouse to them in 1875, and the debt incurred by that transaction put the garden’s finances in jeopardy for many years. Ultimately, in 1891, the gardens and Kibble Palace were transferred to the City of Glasgow, “to be kept open, preserved and maintained in all time coming as a public park, botanic gardens and place of recreation, for the use of the inhabitants of the City.”

THE KIBBLE DOME UNDER A MOODY GLASGOW SPRING SKY.

JAPANESE KOI CARP UNDER THE SMALLER ENTRANCE DOME.

TREE FERNS ARE THE SHINING STARS, SOME MORE THAN 100 YEARS OLD.

“It’s a joy to watch the kids come in—they love the fish (Koi carp swim about in a pond below the smaller entrance dome), then they walk into the dome and you can see their eyes get big,” he says, pointing to the monstrous ferns and looming Japanese banana trees. “We don’t charge admission and are able to offer free tours to students, that’s unusual for a botanic garden. Creating an environment like this is fan tastic—it’s not too massive, you can’t get lost, but it gives people an opportunity to enjoy some beauty and serenity, to appreciate the natural world.” To expand public exposure to the gardens, Ewen supported the launch of “Bard in the Botanic,” a Shakespeare in the gardens series, among other

Having tended these ferns and the Botanic Gardens’ other inhabitants, including a prized begonia collection, daily for four decades, Ewen has an intimacy with the plants, a rev erence, but he’s not one to play favorites. He’s just as proud to point out the robust Kahili ginger (Hedychium gardner ianum) planted by Princess Anne when she visited (Ewen also gave Prince Charles a private tour, a career highlight for him), as the funky 300-year old grass tree from Australia, plus a whole wing of carnivorous pitcher plants and Venus fly traps. He equally loves the conifers and alpine plants, and “I’m keen on roses too,” he adds, noting the world rose collection opened by Princess Tomohito of Japan in 2003. For Ewen, it’s all about sharing his passion and knowledge of the plant kingdom, and that kingdom’s historic glass palace.

191THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

nder municipal management, fees were no longer charged for entrance to the gardens or Kibble Palace, and Mr. Kibble’s magnifi cent glasshouse shifted from being primar ily an open space with a few mosses and ferns, to a space filled with plants, including in 1892, the planting of “the magnificent tree ferns under the centre dome (that) afford a spectacle to be seen in no other city in Britain, if indeed in Europe,” as recorded in the minutes of that year’s Annual General Meeting. These tree ferns from Australia, today comprise an official National Collection of tree fern and remain Kibble Palace’s distinctive feature.

“Some date back to 1880,” explains Ewen, who—tall and lanky, distinguished and soft-spoken—seems to resemble them, in the way dog owners often resemble their pets. “Ferns are primitive plants. These are like dinosaurs, really,” he adds. Indeed it’s hard not to be awed, to feel removed to another place and time, as one walks beneath the canopy of uncurl ing, feathery fronds reaching up toward the lacy Victorian ironwork—imagine Jurassic Park meets Downton Abbey

Looking around the luminous dome with its enchanted fern forest, Ewen’s eyes flash a wee twinkle. “You can see why we’re proud,” he says. “If Kibble came back today, I think he’d be amazed to see his glasshouse.”

There’s also a lot to overseeing a heritage site like the Glasgow Botanic Gardens that includes a Class A historic building—the highest rating possible, which Kibble Palace has been given. Ewen is a gentle, humble man, and the respect his former employees have for him is evident as he walks around the grounds, treated like a celebrity, albeit one sans ego. “Nobody has a bad thing to say about him. He’s a clever man—his life was and is these gardens,” says Alex Reynolds, a horticulturalist who has worked at the Botanic Gardens for the last four years.

The three-year undertaking gave Ewen a renewed appre ciation for the architecture and engineering behind the glorious glass marvel that is Kibble Palace. “The lantern at the top alone weighs two and a half tons, so somehow the way it was designed, the glass becomes structural as well,” he says. “The city engineers told us that an application for permission to build it today would be denied.”

ow recently retired, Ewen jokes that he has picked up gardening as a hobby, because in reality, during his long tenure as manager of the Botanic Gardens, administrative du ties kept him from getting the dirt under his fingernails that he would have liked. Given that he oversaw the total restoration of Kibble Palace from 2003 to 2006, you can see why.

But now that most every pane of glass has been replaced (minus one remaining historic row of them), every bit of iron restored or in many cases recast, every magnificent fern replanted, plus hundreds of tons of rock brought in from Northern Scotland and goodness knows how much dirt, the venerable Kibble Palace is once again a breathtak ing work of art, and primed to stand, as a feat of innovation and artistry, an ode to the enduring beauty of glass and the natural wonder of plant life, for another few centuries.

programs. On the heels of a global pandemic, and given the challenges of climate change, the need for a green oasis may be greater today than ever, he notes, “but stimulating an interest in and love of the environment and plants has always been our mission.”

192 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

A WHEEL USED TO OPERATE THE ORIGINAL VENTILATION SYSTEM.

“We fully dismantled it for the first time since 1882. All the iron bars were stripped of paint—28 layers!—and much of it lead, which is why we had to do all of the restoration off-site,” he explains. Ewen and his team raised £7 million ($8.6 million), much of it from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to underwrite the extensive project, which not only entailed moving every plant out of the palace, but painstakingly cataloging the glass and structure into a database, as no plans survive from Mr. Kibble’s day. Before the restoration, the ventilation system was manually operated by turning big iron wheels that now hide, at ground level, in the fern forest. “They rarely worked,” says Ewen, who welcomed the modern electronic upgrade.

Tree ferns in the center dome.

194 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) INSIDE THE MAIN RANGE GLASSHOUSES. AN ORCHID FROM THE COLLECTION. ROOM AFTER ROOM OF DIFFERENT BIOSPHERES. AN IRON SPIRAL STAIRCASE, RECENTLY REFURBISHED.

A sampling of the Botanic Gardens’ National Collection of Begonias.

The main room in the tropical house at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.

QUAD ARM BELDI BLACK BENJAMINFINISHMOORE #383 MEADOW VIEW SHADES HEWN BRASS LACQUERED INTERIOR INTERIORS BY ASHLEY WHITTAKER DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS LOOF

199THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

CHILTERN SINGLE BLACK FINISH WITH VINTAGE ACCENTS INTERIORS BY JEFFREY ALAN MARKS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR TONDRO / OTTO

EDDYSTONE ROUND POLISHED NICKEL FINISH BLACK INTERIORSACCENTSBYSIENNA & SAGE INTERIOR DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW GIAMMARCO

HYDE HEIRLOOM FINISH WITH CUSTOM FABRIC SHADE INTERIORS BY WESLEY INTERIORS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEIDI HARRIS

202 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

DIAMOND VINTAGE POLISHEDFINISHBRASS ACCENTS CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY KELLY HOHLA INTERIORS ARCHITECTURE BY STUDIO AM BUILD BY HOXIE HUGGINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON LEITZ

The living room mantle is a scrapbook of family history and happy times, including an ostrich feather headdress Sara wore to Allison Sarofim’s legendary Halloween party.

Cover illustration by Riki Matsuda.

202

ARCHITECTURE BY STUDIO AM BUILD BY HOXIE HUGGINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON LEITZ

KELLY HOHLA INTERIORS

DIAMOND VINTAGE POLISHEDFINISHBRASS ACCENTS CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY

Sara found the perfect acce S S o rie S for a h e rme S m a rdi Gra S lunch at Ju S t in e at a local antique emporium.

i n a c ity where exce S S i S e V e rythin G , dancin G S h oe S , l ike Sara’ S l o uboutin S , are hi G h , colorful and beribboned.

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

2 202

DIAMOND VINTAGE POLISHEDFINISHBRASS ACCENTS CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY KELLY HOHLA INTERIORS ARCHITECTURE BY STUDIO AM BUILD BY HOXIE HUGGINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON LEITZ

It is the dining room, then, that has to be readily converted into a ballroom, when enough lubrication has greased the dancing heels. In a stroke of inspired resourcefulness that characterizes her design work, Sara has deployed a ping pong table to serve as the ultimate flexible dining table. In a flash it can be cleared, folded up and rolled away, so the bon temps can indeed rouler. Not quite square but definitely commodious, the table seats four per side comfortably, more when elbows rub.

q u een of the b on tem p S

SARA RUFFIN COSTELLO NEW ORLEANS

“Twenty is my preferred count for dinner,” says Sara. “Something about that number feels like more of a party. You’re getting to know people, you’re catching up with people. Everyone comes with an old friend and leaves with a new one.” Which is exactly what happened when she threw a dinner party for six of us from Urban Electric, liberally spicing our group with locals, some long timers like her “sister wife” Vesta, along with other more recent transplants, including decorator Lorraine Kirke, restaurateurs Sean Josephs and Mani Dawes, and stylist/producer Trei Chambers.

The bags of space, indoors and out, changed how she approached everything, not least entertaining. More room begets more merrymaking, more indulging, more dancing and music, more mashup and cross-connecting of all sorts. In other words, more of all the things that make her adopted city so singular and riotously engaging.

HENRY HOWARD, NOTABLE ARCHITECT OF SUCH LOUISIANA LANDMARKS AS MADEWOOD AND NOTTOWAY PLANTATIONS, ALSO DESIGNED DOZENS OF GRAND HOUSES IN NEW ORLEANS’ GARDEN DISTRICT. SARA RUFFIN COSTELLO, DECORATOR, STYLIST, WRITER AND FORMER CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF DOMINO MAGAZINE, WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO LAND ONE OF THEM MORE THAN 10 YEARS AGO.

You could park a semi in Sara Costello’s living room. With windows reaching from floor to 14-foot ceiling, a fireplace flanked by doors that open out to the pool and a piano tucked in one corner, it is a party palace-in-waiting. But rolling up the gigantic jute rug to clear the floor for dancing poses a problem. “When it was delivered all bound up, the rug barely fit through the double front doors,” says Sara.” It was a pig in a python situation, altogether unwieldy.” So once it went down, it stayed down.

There is always room in the generous front hall for a spillover table.

202

Such a tasty melange of flavors extends to more than just the guest list and menus. A dinner party chez Costello blends green Moroccan tumblers with cut crystal goblets, French fauteuil with folding chairs, humble bowls with Mottahedeh dinner plates (in her wedding pattern, Imperial Blue). But never paper napkins. A certain amount of decorum was bred into this Richmond, Virginia, native. “There’s nothing like pulling out the silver, pressing the napkins,” says the woman whose happy place is the laundry room. “There’s a lot of effort, for sure, but stagecraft is as important as what’s on the plate.” Especially in New Orleans. Especially during Mardi Gras.

DIAMOND VINTAGE POLISHEDFINISHBRASS ACCENTS CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY KELLY HOHLA INTERIORS ARCHITECTURE BY STUDIO AM BUILD BY HOXIE HUGGINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON LEITZ 5

Sara’s flavorful approach to guest lists echoes that of entertainer extraordinaire Julia Reed, a friend and neighbor with whom she had the luck to spend time before Reed’s premature passing in 2020. “Julia was the lighthouse. Nobody was as tough, as funny, as smart, as elegant. She served the best food you’ve ever tasted in your life and she usually made it herself. And when I would ask her who was coming to dinner, she’d say, in her Mississippi drawl, ‘I have no ide-ah who’s gonna be here tonight. I just called everyone I know.’”

abo V e from left : i n S t ructed to wear “ S u btle” co S t ume S t r ei c h amber S , a ccompanied by m i S S y h u l S e y in a new tiara of pompom flower S , a nd n a i S h w i lliam S , m ore than deli V e red.

“There’s a buildup during Carnival to the crescendo that is Mardi Gras,” says Sara.” It’s electric, it’s like a galactic storm.” The tom-tom of drumming echoes through neighborhoods for weeks as the bands practice parading. Everyone participates, dresses up, cuts loose, imbibes. Back before she lived there, Sara’s fantasy of New Orleans was of walking into a grand house and having a civilized drink. Aside from the joy of doing that in her own home, she can now steer

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS202

DIAMOND VINTAGE POLISHEDFINISHBRASS ACCENTS CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY KELLY HOHLA INTERIORS ARCHITECTURE BY STUDIO AM BUILD BY HOXIE HUGGINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON LEITZ

Out on the high-columned front porch, pairs of rockers and clusters of bistro tables and chairs beckon guests to sit a spell and sip on a Lion Tamer or Ghost Cup. It’s a perfect place to take in the bands that will parade by during Mardi Gras or to just soak up the spirit of New Orleans. “People emerge from behind their gates and mingle,” says Sara. “Everyone hangs out and tumbles into the street. And the fun of it is talking to random strangers. I mean, really, it’s like nowhere else. You have to get in. You have to get into it.”

o p po S ite, clockwi S e f rom upper left: Sara mixe S blue and white china with ru S t ic G r een G la S S w are from m o rocco ; l o w V a S e S of S p rin G flower S bri G h ten the table with color and S c ent ; d ra matic floral decoration S a re ea S y : Sara J u S t G o e S to the G a rden and G a ther S b ranche S of fan palm S and ma G nolia.

a b o V e , from left : l a tticework, textile S and art add dimen S ion to a S ittin G room at t h e c h loe ; c r ane S lift off abo V e S a ra S i ttin G beneath urban electric lou l ou S c once S

locals and out-of-towners alike to The Chloe, a 14-room hotel housed in an Uptown mansion, decorated to the eclectic nines by Sara herself.

In Robert LeBlanc, a native Louisianan and local restaurateur who added hotelier to his resume with The Chloe, Sara met her match. “His MO is, you know, open the doors, let us entertain you,” she says. “This wonderful spacious house gives us the flow for entertaining as you would at home, which I love so much.” She and LeBlanc imbued The Chloe with an idiosyncratic, soulful voice–exactly what she seeks in hotels she visits. There’s a bright sunroom and a moody bar, an alligator woven into the stair runner and egrets crisscrossing the walls of a high-ceilinged salon.

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

8 202

p o rche S , l ike the c o S t ello ’ S w elcomin G V e randa, are e S S e ntial player S in n e w o r lean S e ntertainin G

The motifs of a vintage cut-glass green decanter echo the vegetation in Sara’s garden.

202

HYDE HEIRLOOM FINISH WITH CUSTOM FABRIC SHADE INTERIORS BY WESLEY INTERIORS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEIDI HARRIS

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

DIAMOND VINTAGE POLISHEDFINISHBRASS ACCENTS CLEAR INTERIORSGLASSBY KELLY HOHLA INTERIORS ARCHITECTURE BY STUDIO AM BUILD BY HOXIE HUGGINS PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON LEITZ THE CURRENT, VOL.4

GLASSES ON DISPLAY AT LUCULLUS ANTIQUES NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022 10:13AM

CHARLES

BOTH SUCCINCT. THEY BOTH BOIL THINGS DOWN. AND THEY BOTH TELL THE TRUTH.”

FROM HIS WATERFRONT STUDIO IN BROOKLYN’S RED HOOK DISTRICT, MASTER CRAFTSMAN CHARLES FLICKINGER CREATES GLASSWORK FOR SOME OF THE MOST PROMINENT STRUCTURES IN THE WORLD. THE PROOF OF HIS SKILL IS ON DISPLAY FROM MANHATTAN TO LONDON TO BANGKOK—AND BEYOND.

THEY

FLICKINGER

ABOUT

207THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS GLASS Luminary

GLASSWORK

“POETRY IS A LOT LIKE WHEN YOU THINK IT. ARE

rand Central Station. Empire State Building. National Archives.

The translucent orbs of glass are at once muted and bold, and call to mind stained glass church windows, an early and enduring source of inspiration for Charles, who grew up attending a Presbyterian church in Norwalk, Ohio, and is a practicing Methodist in his adopted hometown. (Charles and his wife, Ann

As well as being beautiful, bent glass is supremely functional. It's used for everything from glass bowls for light fixtures to curved architectural walls and murals to slumped enamel tableware to clock faces and signage.

208 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS 02 01 03

Museum of Natural History. The list of places displaying Charles Flickinger’s glasswork includes some of the biggest landmarks in New York City. And that’s just his backyard.

Farmer, are part of Red Hook’s small but tight-knit residential enclave.)

For more than 35 years, Charles has been at the forefront of the glass bending industry, founding Flickinger Glassworks in 1985, and setting the standards for others to follow in the process.

The heart of Flickinger Glassworks is a stock of 4000-plus steel molds, many of them inherited or purchased from Charles’ many mentors. Which is, as our subject points out below, a fitting tribute to the legacy of both past craftsmen and of the craft itself.

We’re in the Flickinger Glassworks studio, on the historic Red Hook piers, a tidy workshop nestled in an industrial, waterfront pocket of Brooklyn, and the day is a perfect blend of June sunshine and breeze. Charles has left the doors open to enjoy the weather, a brief respite from the city’s summertime swelter, and the view of the water just beyond his front door. It’s a beautiful perch, a panoramic scene not often attributed to this corridor of gritty industry and its warehouseladen landscape. Still, it’s hard to look at anything other than the glass artwork.

Clockface in Grand Central Station, NYC, restored by Flickinger Glassworks.

04 06 05 07

06 The rounded façade of The Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca. The glass oven.

BREAKING THE MOLD

Charles and his team of artisans are regarded as some of the best slumpedglass masters in the country, specializing in the kind of projects that require extreme precision to produce elegantly rounded surfaces. We first encountered his work over 15 years ago when we approached him to help us realize the curved elements of a challenging bespoke job for a century-old furniture maker. 01 Flickinger Glassworks. Glass molds. Cabinet containing glass treasures. Slumped glass.

05 Transparent panels on a flexible, heat-resistant bed.

My greatest sources of inspiration, beyond the mentors I learned from and my spirituality, are my own family. My grandfather owned a balloon factory. My grandmother fired pottery in her own kiln and taught me the power of a fire burning to 2,000 degrees. Even my parents worked with their hands to a certain extent; while they did not exactly build their house from scratch, they did make it from the ground up, in a sense, using a 1940s Sears kit. And so much of my creative drive comes from my mother. She was a fearless seeker, a traveler who was always curious and wanting to explore. She loved taking us to places around the world, places she was interested in that she thought we could learn from, culturally, too.

We’ve had to learn as we go, and then we’ve applied those skills to future work—historic restoration, lighting the

Weon.can

Grand Central food concourse, creating safety glass for exhibition cases at the Museum of Natural History and so

The art I’ve been exposed to in my life influences me in every way. I take painting classes from a Japanese instructor, Koho Yamamoto, who just turned 100 and is still teaching here in NYC. And I love literature. And poetry—nothing moves me like great poetry. Walt Whitman, Edith Bishop, Mark Strand. I just love poetry. I don’t read or write as much of it as I’d like these days, but it resonates with me nonetheless. Probably because it’s a lot like glasswork, when you think about it. They are both succinct. They both boil things down. And they both tell the truth.

There were a lot of old-timers who taught me how to do this. And it’s easy to get excited and caught up in the process even after all of these decades. But then I stop—we stop—and go, “Wait a minute; yes, this is amazing, but it’s also about so much more than just us. Because, you know, we are just standing on the shoulders of the guys who led the way.”

But bending glass is not all we do. We also silk-screen, enamel, laminate, fuse and carve glass. Which is both a function of being super passionate about all things related to the process of transforming glass into art as well as an inherent side effect of being in business for such a long time.

Like I said, our team is small so we have to be resourceful. And, really, the curving possibilities are endless when it comes to glass, and the work we do, well, it truly enhances the architectural landscape of the world around it. Let’s put it this way, if you can imagine it, chances are we can do it—and probably already have.

211THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

opened my doors in 1985. Back then, it was just me armed with the knowledge of people who came before and a lot of enthusiasm to be a part of that tradition.

That’s why even today, I keep my team small to just eight people. Over the years, I’ve trained or employed around a hundred people—craftsmen and craftswomen who have gone on to do glasswork, as well as ironwork and other artisan paths—but in general, it is a tight and curated group. We do big work but in a small way.

We bend glass just as the master craftsmen of Europe did in the 18th century, by slumping sheets into steel molds. But we don’t shy away from modern innovation, either: Our custom kilns use infrared technology for better energy efficiency, ensuring they produce the finest bent glass for the best price. That distinction is important and sets us apart.

We have 7,000 square feet here in the Red Hook shop, and our footprint, in terms of the spaces we reach, is much larger. But the effect when people walk through the workshop is the real tell. The reactions usually go something like, “Wow! This is interesting. Unusual.” And it is, especially in the world we live in today! To see people making a living with their hands—well, it’s really something special.

The first thing you think about when you're working with glass, whether it's architectural or lighting or decorative, is structure. How are you going to support it? And so that's where we start and what we will build on.

do a lot thanks to this treasure trove of molds I’ve collected from my mentors and at various auctions— some of them are more than 150 years old! But we’re also creating new and original ones of our own.

CHARLES FLICKINGER AS TOLD TO THE URBAN ELECTRIC Co.

Glass panel entering the oven to begin the bending process.

214 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | GLASS

ESME DOUBLE POLISHED BRASS FINISH WITH CUSTOM FABRIC SHADES INTERIORS BY DAKOTA WILLIMON, ARCHITECTURE BY MARY MAC WILSON

KRONAM VINTAGE FINISH ANTIQUE BRASS ACCENTS CAPSE FLUSH ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

NEEDLES HANG VINTAGE FINISH ANTIQUE GILT ACCENTS SEEDED INTERIORSGLASSBYCATE GROSCH ARCHITECTURE BY JIM STOECKER ARCHITECTS INC PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHANIE RUSSO

WEATHERED DOORWAY LOCH LOMOND — LUSS, SCOTLAND WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2022 12:02PM

STRONG AND MALLEABLE, NEW AND RECLAIMED, VERSATILE AND PURPOSEFUL. WOOD IS THE STURDIEST CHAMELEON IN THE MATERIAL WORLD, BLENDING NATURAL FORMS WITH MAN’S HAND IN A WAY THAT LINKS ORGANIC CREATION WITH INTENTIONAL CRAFTSMANSHIP, AND NATURAL TERRAIN WITH THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT.

WOOD

DECORATED SARCOPHAGUS THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM — CAIRO, EGYPT THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2022 11:06AM

ST CONAN'S KIRK LOCHAWE — ARGYLL AND BUTE, SCOTLAND WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2022 4:27PM

REX FLUSHMOUNT BLACK FINISH WITH POLISHED BRASS LACQUERED ACCENTS INTERIORS BY ML INTERIOR DESIGNS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW FRASZ

224 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

ADAMS ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH CERUSED OAK WOOD INTERIORS BY BROOKE WAGNER DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY PETER GIBEON

DOVER BALL ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH ETCHED PHOTOGRAPHYINTERIORSGLASSBYNICOLEHOLLISBYDOUGLAS FRIEDMAN EL PRADO HOTEL, PALO ALTO, CA

HAMILTON BLACKENED PEWTER FINISH BENJAMIN MOORE #1309 MOROCCAN RED INTERIOR FINISH CUSTOM FABRIC SHADES INTERIORS BY JAMES THOMAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR TONDRO / OTTO

229THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

DOUBLE ARM BELDI BLACK FINISH WITH FARROW & BALL NO. 64 RED EARTH PAINTED SHADES WITH HEWN BRASS LACQUERED INTERIOR INTERIORS BY ANNE MCDONALD DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY BY HARIS KENJAR

CAPSE FLUSH ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH INTERIORS BY HEIDI CAILLIER DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY HARIS KENJAR

BURL WALNUT STAIRWELL VILLA NECCHI CAMPIGLIO — MILAN, ITALY TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2022 12:39PM

STORY BOARDS

At The Hudson Company’s custom mill in Pine Plains, New York, the past is always present. Every plank and beam has a history that carries with it the visual character and authenticity that design-forward residential projects and cultural institutions crave. Procuring and producing this sought-after building material to Hudson’s exacting standards can be a complex undertaking, but for Jamie Hammel and his team, who travel the world to source it, the end result is always worth the effort.

PINE PLAINS, NEW YORK

The rolling hillside outside of Hudson, New York.

THE HUDSON COMPANY'S WAREHOUSE FLOOR. JAMIE

he barn swallow flapping at the entrance of The Hudson Company’s headquarters in Pine Plains, New York, in northeastern Dutchess County, feels like a sign. The newly hatched creature, just fresh from the nest, doesn’t want to leave. His father and mother and siblings have all flown away. But he (or she) is content—and why not? As a repository of reclaimed and reprocessed wood, The Hudson Company is literally the perfect perch.

What’s more, in 2010, the practice of reclaiming and reinventing old wood barely even registered as an industry, and Jamie spent the first couple of years just teaching himself the ins and outs of his nascent operation. “I spent a lot of nights wondering what I—a guy who had worked for media companies like Condé Nast and NBC in New York City—had gotten myself into,” he says. “I had no experience with this world, just a passion for design, an interest in green building and a vague sense that this type of work could become important and in-demand after the recession. I’m also an entrepreneur at heart,” he continues, “but there were definitely hard times when I worried I had made a colossal mistake.”

PINE PLAINS, NEW YORK HAMMEL.

A lucky break early on convinced him otherwise.

It wasn’t always this way. When Jamie Hammel launched the company in 2010, the inventory was a fraction of its current size and not the mountains of neatly stacked historic wood sorted by size and species that pepper the landscape today. The air was quieter, absent the chorus of buzz saws, humming machinery and the click-clack ping of nails being removed from a harvest of old timber dropping into glass jars (recycling isn’t limited to wood alone here.) Back then, the building that houses The Hudson Company was still the shell of an old public theater—which was itself the shell of Carvel’s former ice cream distribution center—and bore

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD 237

little resemblance to the beautifully rustic showplace of niche carpentry and sustainable design that it is today.

The client—a very happy fellow whose myriad acting credits have made him a household name—took notice and became a return customer. “That project ended up being not only a big milestone professionally,” Jamie reflects, “but also the moment when I knew we had what it takes to survive

business.sheenlendsitsCypressfossilizedwaterandindustrialCivilstructures—fromhistoricWar-erabuildingsNewYorkCitytankstoSouthernprizedforwildcoloration—abespoketothe

a once-thriving factory located just south of Boston, was slated for demolition. Through the project foreman, Jamie got a jump on the scores of Antique Heart Pine encased within the massive building. What’s more, the site lead was the foreman’s son, so Jamie knew the wood would be handled and organized with care.

That’s not to say the journey has been easy. The market for reclaimed wood has evolved immeasurably over the past 12 years, and The Hudson Company marked a distinct shift away from the questionable standards and poor service that had come to be associated with the industry. Instead, Jamie embraced values more closely aligned with high-end design and design-adjacent businesses: quality, controls, unparalleled client support and an encyclopedic knowl edge of wood—insights he offers freely and often. A passing comment about a table or wall inside Jamie’s office, for instance, is more likely than not to result in a quick lesson on mushroom wood and its many attributes (“great for wall paneling”) or the merits of white vs. red oak.

238 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

e had just launched into business,” Ja mie recounts. “We had enough expe rience to have outgrown our hubris, but we were still definitely driven by a desire to succeed. Anyway,” he con tinues, “I get a call one night and it’s for an order of wood for a big apartment in Tribeca. I say, ‘YES!’ without thinking, and then wonder how I’ll ever make it happen. But we stayed up all night—because it’s a rush job and we clearly weren’t the first in line—and we got it done.”

Aslong-term.”wordspread and the business grew, The Hudson Com pany’s approach came to represent something unique and, as it turned out, highly desirable. Today, the provenance of the company’s materials is as wide-ranging as the types of wood it sells, and his dedication to preserving the beams and boards of antique and historic structures—from Civil Warera industrial buildings and New York City water tanks to fossilized Southern Cypress prized for its wild coloration— lends a bespoke sheen to the business.

When Jamie started out, The Hudson Company’s supply came mostly from old barns salvaged from the Hudson Val ley. Over time, other sourcing avenues opened up—largely due to the network of fellow purveyors, as well as construc tion crews, that Jamie has personally cultivated over the years. One of these mutually beneficial relationships bore fruit last summer when the decommissioned Draper Mill,

...his dedication to preserving the beams and boards of antique and

Draper Mill, a once-thriving textile manufacturing facility spanning over one million square feet located just south of Boston, under demolition. The Hudson Company is sustainably salvaging the wood.

An excavator at the Draper Mill demolition site.

(FROM TOP) ANTIQUE HEART PINE BEAMS SALVAGED FROM DRAPER MILL.

CONSISTENT WITH THE TIME THE MILL WAS ORIGINALLY CONSTRUCTED, THE BEAMS ARE MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD.

THE

241

CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

“To do the High Line, my team traveled to Hyderabad, a city built in India in the 1600s, to reclaim teak, which is not a valuable species there because it’s so abundant. We salvaged the wood cold so we could take the joists, too. Then, we shipped it back here, milled it and turned it into decking and benches for the High Line.”

242 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

And underpinning it all, he notes, is the value of really great stories. “People care about history, and we think about that every time we reinvent something antique into something niche and modern. Narrative matters. Origins matter. Just ask the barn swallow,” he adds with a smile.

“People choose us because we care about aesthetics as much as sustainability, and we have the capabilities to take on challenging specifications,” Jamie says.

Likewise, he continues, the Whitney was a significant lo gistical undertaking. “The Whitney’s floors are the largest reclaimed floors in the United States. We milled over 30 tractor trailers of Antique Heart Pine timbers—each one 5" x 17" x 22'—from the Phillip Morris factory in Louisville, Kentucky. The finished product is also an inch and a half thick, which is very unusual; we have the flexibility to cus tom manufacture projects like this in line with an architect’s vision, no matter the scale.”

WOOD CURING OVEN IN THE HUDSON FACTORY.

his meticulousness extends to every project, regardless of the end-use: not just to floor boards, for example, but also to the original joists they were nailed to (which deepens the patina and integrity of the repurposed pieces); not just to siding, but also to spe cialized interior elements like ceiling beams. Indeed, The Hudson Company’s particular brand of old-new reinvention is on display everywhere from private residences to hospi tality properties, such as the 1 Hotel, to cultural institutions, like the Whitney Museum, and even public parks.

FRESHLY CUT WOOD PLANKS. HISTORIC DETAILS AND CHARACTER REMAIN.

The largest reclaimed floor in the country at the Whitney.

Installation view of America Is Hard to See (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 1-September 27, 2015). From left to right: Susan Rothenberg, For the Light , 1978-79; Philip Guston, Cabal , 1977; Chuck Close, Phil , 1969; Jack Whitten, Sorcerer's Apprentice , 1974; Robert Reed, Plum Nellie, Sea Stone

ONE OF HUDSON'S LONGEST-STANDING EMPLOYEES GROOMING AN EAGER UNDERSTUDY IN THE SAMPLE DEPARTMENT.

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) BABY BARN SWALLOW MUSTERING THE COURAGE TO FLY FOR THE FIRST TIME SITS AT THE HUDSON COMPANY'S MAIN ENTRANCE. ALL SALVAGED WOOD IS CLEARED OF NAILS AND OTHER HARDWARE. JAMIE'S OFFICE.

244 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

245THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) INSIDE THE SAMPLE DEPARTMENT. PLANKING LUMBERJACKS. SHOWROOM WOOD TYPE AND FINISH SAMPLES. RECLAIMED BARN WOOD BEAM.

The Hudson Company High Falls European Oak herringbone floor in a SoHo loft in NYC. Interiors by Jesse Parris-Lamb. Photography by Nicole Franzen.

248 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

WINSTON ANTIQUE BRASS FINISH WITH CLEAR GLASS INTERIORS BY CAROLYN MILLER DESIGNS, PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAM FROST

CHISHOLM CLEAN RAL #5013 COBALT BLUE POWDER COAT FINISH HEWN BRASS LACQUEREDCLEARACCENTSGLASS INTERIORS BY JENKINS INTERIORS PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATHAN SCHRODER

CHILTERN DOUBLE BRONZE FINISH HEWN BRASS LACQUERED ACCENTS WHITE SHADES WITH WHITE INTERIOR PHARMACY BRONZE FINISH WHITE SHADES WITH WHITE INTERIOR INTERIORS BY HARPER HOUSE DESIGN PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAYLA MCKENZIE

252 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

WHITBY BRONZE FINISH WITH CUSTOM FABRIC SHADE INTERIORS BY WESLEY MOON, PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM WALDRON / OTTO

METRO VINTAGE FINISH WHITE GLASS SHADE

INTERIORS BY OLIVIA O'BRYAN

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA GLYNN

252

Cover illustration by Carlisle Burch.

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA GLYNN

COCKTAIL h O u r ON AMANDA’s TE r r A CE. WHITE GLASS

1 METRO VINTAGE FINISH

SHADE

INTERIORS BY OLIVIA O'BRYAN

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD252 h O PE h I LL T h r O u G h T h E P ALM s 2

“This is my home,” Amanda says from her open-air living room, where she sits beneath paintings by Bahamian masters and other artists whose work spans from the 1880s to 1970s. Hope Hill is a treasure trove of collections and mini-collections, from shell art to folk portraiture to Asian ceramic pagodas and tulipieres to art and architecture books to sailors’ valentines. But the crown jewel in her cache, both personally and professionally, is wood, specifically tropical wood.

As a girl growing up in Southern Florida, Amanda fell in love with the Bahamas early on, first as a visitor, later as a part-time resident and eventually as a local fixture whose retail endeavors, design firm and various preservation-minded projects cemented her as an expat with an abiding presence and investment in the culture and community.

AMANDA LINDROTH LYFORD CAY

Amanda, an interior designer with an international roster of clients, has become synonymous with Hope Hill and the understatedly elegant island life she and her late husband, Orjan, created there. But more than any single residence, more than any house (and she has lived in and breathed life into more than a few local gems), it’s Lyford Cay, and the Bahamas, more broadly, that Amanda calls home.

From wicker to rattan to straw to reeds and bamboo, Amanda has amassed an enormous archive of furniture, decorative objects, souvenirs, accessories, baskets, artwork, tableware and more—all woven from material native, or historically relevant, to this island paradise.

3 METRO VINTAGE FINISH WHITE GLASS SHADE

Is LAND rO OTED

INTERIORS BY OLIVIA O'BRYAN

HOPE HILL, AMANDA LINDROTH’S MUCH-CHRONICLED HOUSE IN THE BAHAMIAN ENCLAVE OF LYFORD CAY, MORE THAN LIVES UP TO ITS NAME. IT’S A CHEERFUL SPOT, WHERE OPTIMISM AND INSPIRATION ABOUND, AS DO DELIGHTFUL SEA BREEZES. TUCKED INTO ITS NAMESAKE HILLSIDE, THE PERCH AFFORDS EVERY WINDOW AND PORCH A SWEEPING VIEW OF BLUE SKY AND LUSH VEGETATION. IT’S THE KIND OF PLACE THAT EVOKES DEEP SIGHS AND EVEN DEEPER BREATHS FROM ITS INHABITANTS, FOR THE BEAUTY IS LITERALLY BREATHTAKING.

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA GLYNN

252

CYP r E s s- P ANELED EN T r Y

OPPO s ITE : T h E M AIN TE r r A CE s E T FO r L u N C h

Amanda can wax long about the origins of a certain rattan bistro chair, the history of Lyford’s rope-bound buoys or the best place for a panoramic view of the island from the locals’ perspective. And, yes, that knowledge and passion comes from the kind of appreciation an outsider brings to an adopted homeland, but it also springs forth from her love of design and its ability to impact its surroundings—be it the Messel green wash on a wooden shutter, or the way that an insight into the quality of the wood itself makes the difference between loving a place and living in it most fully.

METRO VINTAGE FINISH WHITE GLASS SHADE

ABOVE, F r O M LEFT: h A T s ON AMANDA’ s ANTIQ u E

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA GLYNN

There are wicker animals fashioned as stools by the pool, rattan bar carts and sectional sofas that have inspired the silhouettes now offered through her eponymous collection of housewares. Plus there are baskets woven in the patterns unique to Lyford and the surrounding areas, as well as hats in various styles suspended from a bamboo hall tree whose French provenance recalls early aesthetic elements that became part of Bahamian style and culture.

INTERIORS BY OLIVIA O'BRYAN

These traditional uses of tropical wood are more than decorative to Amanda— they are part of this place, inherent to this island identity, and she’s committed to preserving that. Amanda’s knowledge of Lyford Cay and the Bahamas permeates her conversations with local craftsmen and her support of artisans working to maintain these endangered Bahamian styles of weaving through the Straw Shack, a womenoriented trade collective founded by one of her firm’s designers, Celine Lotmore Jones.

F r E NC h BAMBOO h AL L T r E E ; h O PE h I LL’ s PECKY

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD252

T h E CON s u M MATE h O s T , AMANDA s s E EMINGLY ENDLE s s ENTE r T AINING COLLECTION CONTAIN s j us T T h E r I G h T PIECE s FO r EVE r Y OCCA s ION ( A ND TIME OF DAY ) , sur P r I s ING h E r G u E s T s w I T h F r E sh TABLE s C APE s T h r O u G h O u T T h E I r s T AY OPPO s ITE, CLOCK w I s E F r O M u P PE r LEFT: A CLEA r VIE w TO T h E O CEAN ; w I CKE r D ETAIL ; s E T FO r B r u N C h ABOVE, CLOCK w I s E F r O M u P PE r LEFT: POOL s IDE PEACOCK C h A I r ; A G r EEN E r Y D r APED LIG h T PINK, w O VEN C h A NDELIE r ; w I CKE r TEA s E T. METRO VINTAGE FINISH WHITE GLASS SHADE

INTERIORS BY OLIVIA O'BRYAN

PHOTOGRAPHY

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO BY JESSICA GLYNN

A C u r A TED COLLECTION OF BA h A MIAN A r T A ND EP h E ME r A

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD252

METRO VINTAGE WHITE GLASS

SHADE

INTERIORS BY OLIVIA O'BRYAN

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA GLYNN

Bougainvillea-covered wooden chandelier.

FINISH

WHITBY BRONZE FINISH WITH CUSTOM FABRIC SHADE INTERIORS BY WESLEY MOON, PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM WALDRON / OTTO

THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD252

THE CURRENT, VOL.4

ARCHITECTURE BY MITCHELL STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA GLYNN

METRO VINTAGE FINISH WHITE GLASS SHADE

INTERIORS BY OLIVIA O'BRYAN

BRAMSHILL TARNISHED BRASS FINISH TARNISHED BRASS ACCENTS HANS HEIRLOOM FINISH BRONZE ACCENTS A CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE URBAN ELECTRIC CO., ALLISON ABNEY INTERIORS, DANIEL BECK ARCHITECTURE AND GROSSMAN BUILDING GROUP.

WOODEN CABINET ON DISPLAY AT LUCULLUS ANTIQUES NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022 10:25AM

“GETTING PIECES BACK THAT WE SOLD TWENTY YEARS AGO IS REWARDING AND A REMINDER THAT GOOD WOOD ENDURES.”

GERALD BLAND HEADED UP THE ENGLISH FURNITURE DEPARTMENT AT SOTHEBY’S BEFORE OPENING HIS OWN GALLERY 35 YEARS AGO. LIKE HIS BELOVED REGENCY PERIOD, HE EMBODIES CULTURE AND REFINEMENT. BUT HE IS A PURIST ONLY IN FORM. IN HIS GENTLEMANLY WAY, HE WELCOMES ALL COMERS, OBJECTS AND ACQUIRERS ALIKE. GERALD

258 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD WOOD Luminary

BLAND

Like the “overnight sensation” actor who has in fact been plying his trade for decades, Gerald’s keen eye and instinct have been molded by years of looking and learning. They are what inform his discerning yet unpretentious approach to the furniture, objects and art he acquires for his Upper East Side gallery, where his daughter Georgiana works as Gallery Director and which he shares with his sister, decorator Connie Newberry, who first turned us onto Gerald’s talents.

y father’s side of the family were collectors, though I found out once I had educated myself that what they were collecting was junk. My ancestors moved to North Carolina, to a town called Turkey Swamp, from the northern neck of Virginia in 1711 and never left. My great uncle was a tobacco auctioneer who picked up antiques as he traveled around the South. He lived with his mother, and then alone after she died, in a good-sized Victorian house across the road from my grandparents. I would go over there and ramble around through mostly big empty rooms—one with a bed in it, another with just a piano. It was all really romantic—the rooms all connected by tall double doors, buckets of loose change scattered about. Over the mantle in the kitchen were water buffalo horns from the Philippines engraved with female nudes, the only thing I got from his estate. It sparked my I’veimagination.alwaysbeeninterested in history. I had two aunts who

The gallery, a series of welcoming sunny rooms on the top floor of the Fine Arts

When I was in school I worked summers on Nantucket Island. That was both enlightening—architecturally it’s such a perfectly preserved place—and fortuitous. Through meeting someone at the restaurant where I was working, I got a job at Sotheby’s which was a bit of a fluke, the classic story of someone saying, “look me up if you come to New York.”

Building arranged just haphazardly enough to feel residential, reveals treasure after treasure, from the obvious (a Grinling Gibbons limewood console) to the sly (steel tables of his own design). Gerald is a decorative arts DJ, a mixmaster of the antique and modern who makes bridging the two seamless and current. Just as he adores a fine Regency pair of benches by George Bullock, he embraces contemporary talent like Eve Kaplan, whose baroque ceramic pieces lend an exotic glamour.

GERALD BLAND

260 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

lived in Colonial Revival houses, furnished for the most part with reproduction colonial furniture. I remember being impressed by the furniture—an early encounter with good taste. I was six. By the time I was in high school in Wilmington, I was giving tours of the historic district, usually after a night out with friends. I spent time in the local library looking up the history of Wilmington and its early 19th century buildings that supplanted 18th century ones during the economic boom just before the Civil War. Once, I organized a keg party at Oakdale cemetery. It had great monuments and tombstones and the whole thing was atmospherically draped by live oak trees.

dentify what doesn’t belong: a Sheraton secretaire, a gilded ceramic pillow, a Lingam stone, a Chippendale chest of drawers, a contemporary monoprint. There is no right answer because there is no wrong thing. All of the above are embraced by Gerald Bland, a dealer and collector who cares about provenance but is guided above all else by quality, style and form.

decorators and to handle furnishing reconfigurations for private clients always in the midst of downsizing, upsizing and cross-sizing among their multiple residences.

AS TOLD TO THE URBAN ELECTRIC Co.

Gerald’s sharp sense of proportion and finish makes him a recombinant wizard with furniture, adding bases and tops to existing antique elements, tinkering with gilding to make it softer and more modern, lacquering a set of chairs in an unexpected color. Beyond the inventory, though, it’s his low-key manner—a charming blend of Southern heritage, muted erudition, curiosity and humor—that equip him to influence the influential, to provide the perfect missing piece for renowned

Among the cognoscenti, Gerald has been the go-to for one-of-a-kind furnishings for years. If he doesn’t have the right piece, he’ll find it, or adapt a different one or persuade you that something you’d never considered is in fact the exact thing you should have been looking for all along. If there is indeed such a thing as normative determinism, the theory that suggests the character of a name can be determinative of one’s professional path, he defies it, because his personality, his outlook and certainly his gallery is anything but bland.

I worked in New York from January to June and then transferred to Sotheby’s London where I stayed for a year and a half. This was an enormous eye-opener because I was seeing major things for the first time. We were appraising the contents of grand houses such as Petworth, where we found JMW Turner sketches strewn all over the attic floor which had been his studio.

Sotheby’s was a true apprenticeship. Each of us in the furniture department would be assigned an area of London and sent off with nothing but a notebook. I would take notes about what I was seeing, then once back at the office would

Being liberated from selling only 18th century pieces made

For the longest time I was devoted to true antiques, particularly Early Georgian furniture. It was while handling the estate of Evangeline Bruce that I realized for the first time that I didn't have to be a pure antique dealer selling only a perfectly formed chair from 1770. It could be a piece from 1930 if it had been owned by Nancy Lancaster. Several years later, Albert Hadley asked me to handle his estate. We organized an online sale and sold all of his drawings, everything, down to the pencil cup holders. This furthered the notion that again, not everything had to be pure but appropriate to its situation.

I’d never heard of Sotheby’s, but when I got to New York, I did look him up though it was someone else who hired me. Another person I’d met on Nantucket offered me a place to stay, and I think telling Sotheby’s that my address was 1020 Fifth Avenue may have worked in my favor. They probably thought I had great contacts with things to sell.

be required to stand on top of a desk in the middle of the furniture department and describe what I had seen. There was no visual documentation—I think Polaroids were just coming in then—it was in our notes and visual recollections. It was excellent training.

CARVED LINES BRANCH OFF ALONG THE WALNUT ARM OF A CHAIR.

261THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD

With the pandemic, our designer clients have become more comfortable buying items only seen online. Although many still feel the need to see in situ, so the gallery remains more than relevant. The past few years have also seen many old clients relocating. Getting pieces back for resale that we sold twenty years ago is also rewarding and a reminder that good wood endures.

for a softer landing when the bottom fell out of the market in 2008. I was free to mix things up, and it all became livelier and more interesting. Mid-century modern furniture was coming into vogue, which wasn’t exactly to my taste, but I found things to like, such as pieces in the Swedish Grace style. Its classical forms were compatible with the 18th century, which was our prevailing aesthetic.

262 THE CURRENT, VOL. 4 | WOOD 0201 03

So we started trying to make the antiques we were selling more relevant to that market. By putting a bit of contemporary art over a Chippendale chest of drawers, it all became more appealing to this younger generation. And then I discovered an amazing talent in our own stable. Eve Kaplan, our gilder, was making striking ceramic pieces. Now we have a full collection of her extraordinary work—mirrors, chandeliers, tables, torchères, chenet, mobiles—along with the work of many other contemporary artists.

Gerald reflected in a Georgian walnut and parcel gilt mirror, c. 1740.

A corner office in Gerald’s gallery.

06 Sinuous curves of a Rococo walnut armchair, c. 1750.

265

IN THE DETAILS

03 The stylized arm of a regency mahogany bench attributed to George Bullock, c. 1810.

07 A crazy quilt of fine marquetry.

04 A robust lion’s paw foot of a pedestal table.

In Gerald’s charmingly residential gallery, his curatorial eye reveals itself in ingenious juxtapositions of modern and antique, curvilinear and rectilinear, restrained and exuberant.

06 07

02 A tulipwood table designed and produced by Gerald.

05 Sheraton Crocodile Mahogany Pembroke Table, c. 1780, with gilded garniture by Eve Kaplan.

01 A detail of a Chinoiserie cabinet, with gilt bronze hardware, c. 1685.

CHAPEL OF ROBERT THE BRUCE ST CONAN'S KIRK — LOCHAWE, ARGYLL AND BUTE, SCOTLAND WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2022 4:43PM

BEHIND THE SCENES

$75 USD