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06/29/2016 |
  I was walking to the subway after 11:00 PM after seeing "The Taming of the Shrew" (Not Will's finest hours) in Central Park. On Madison Avenue I was pleased to see the Thomas Moser's showroom has moved to the ground floor. As Madison Avenue has some of the most expensive rents in the world for retail ($500-$1000/sq foot/year) I am hopeful that business is good. There just aren't too many traditional American furniture makers left. Moser, rightly so, has chosen the high end, and seeing his solid wood wonderfully made pieces in a lit window at night next to stores with thousand dollar bathing suits and three thousand dollar purses made me hopeful.
 I've been busy this past week with my son's graduation and getting ready for our scratch and dent sale next friday (july 8). But last Friday my son and I wandered by the 42nd street Library (to see the Hamilton exhibit) and once again the architectural woodworking caught my eye. The ceilings of the entire library are grand but far up in the sky. Take a look at some of the details that are closer by.
The bench is very simple, at least in concept. It's a bench, one of many set all around the library. The library was build between 1897 - 1911 so this bench would most probably have been made by machine. Looking at the detail there is a lot of shaper and pin router work. The big difference between it and public furniture from the post depression period is that while machinery was used in its construction the design, especially the details of the design, the flowing curves and worked moldings go back to an earlier Victorian age of detailing. The Bauhaus movement argued that something made by machine should also like like it was made by machine and there was no need for detailing. But this bench, from a previous generation of design, really uses machines to enable detail. The designers still want to entertain our eyes, even while also making a comfortable place to sit.
The last photo is of a bit of molding on a wall near the bench. This must have been done nearly entirely by hand. I don't know if work like this was done to print and installed or if the rough moldings were fitted then taken down for carving. In any case this is a tour de force of architectural carving. This period was at the height of decorative architectural detail in the US. and it shows. It's just a decoration but it is solid - because it is at human height and it needs to withstand damage. It's detailed without being prissy, and fairly big. And the building is full of it. In wood, stone, and plaster. This isn't a single carving that is a centerpiece of something, it's a fairly nondescript decoration in a room full of decorations and a killer ceiling.
N.B. I was very annoyed when a remodeling of our local library removed lots of indestructible oak chairs and tables and replaced them with melamine :(.
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Gavin
Three weeks ago I found a jewel on Sy Marks place. Three story building that was a German gun club and assoc.
My daughter found the history of it on the web which pointed out that from the East Village to the mid 40's on the east side was all German from the 1890's to the 1930.
Love Thomas Moser, have been to home store in Maine several times. Just wanted to say they have a program that if you buy something on order you can go to the shop and assist in the finish process. They also have classes for repeat buyers that get you into the making process.
Next time we go, we'll be sure to stop in to see Thomas Moser's showroom. Your recommendation comes high.
Michael