1958 Raymond Loewy Le Creuset French Dutch Oven cast iron casserole

We scored this great cast iron dutch over in the wilds of Abbotsford BC a few years back. Sonya (the sharp-eyed cutie) spotted it, and like a magpie drawn to something shiny, this badboy came home with us. It was $2.

Since then we figured out this was a Le Creuset dutch oven, designed by Raymond Loewy in 1958. This is the '25' size, and from what I can  gather, turqouise/aqua is one of the rarest colours that was originally produced (I couldn't find another anywhere online), and this colour wasn't re-issued with the new Raymond Loewy-Le Creuset collections. I just love the shape and colour, it makes me happy every time I walk past it in the kitchen.

Harter Metal Furniture desk task chair, made by Jan Kuypers?

We picked this up at the Pembroke Value Village for $5.00. I have a major love/hate relationship with VV. For the most part it's all overpriced used Gap jeans, and I always get the feeling that the best stuff never hits the floor to begin with. But sometimes, either people are clueless of lazy and they put good stuff out.

Like this chair, it's made by Harter Metal Furniture Ltd., of Guelph Ontario. Harter's still in business today, and they have made some iconic pieces through their history. Jan Kuypers did a long stint working with Harter, and I believe he may be responsible for the great lines on this little task chair. I love the little ant arms that stick out, and the minimalism of the frame. It's got a nice metal back rest and it's super comfortable to sit it. I think it's one of our best finds since moving here. I have grand plans to respray the metal with another colour (any suggestions?, I'm thinking maybe teal, maybe flat black), and I'll get our resident upholstery expert, Sonya, to swap out the split brown vinyl for something more fun, maybe a suede, or some graphic print. For now, it's 'resting' in our basement. 

Wrought Iron Rod child's hoop chair

 We have 9 of these 'hoop' chairs resting in the basement graveyard at this stage. We both love wrought iron rod furniture. Sonya grew up in Vancouver (where we lived for many years), which is home to the midcentury modern king of rod furniture, Peter Cotton. We always buy these chairs when we come across them in the field. All the rest are the standard woven cane/wicker style, but this one is a smaller kids 1/2-sized version with white/red plastic weaving. I also love the homemade wood foot rod-ends on the front feet. There's always at least one of these rod-end coverings missing on every chair we own. Does anyone know where new replacement ones can be found?

 

Jens Risom Danish midcentury T 432 Walnut End Table 1950

So here's this small coffee table that Sonya spotted at a westside Salvation Army that always has the gold. I wasn't particularly impressed, but I could tell from her sly grin that the game was on. She flipped the table over to show me the 'Jens Risom Design' label and suddenly the table looked a whole lot better!

Once we got home a little google search revelead that this is a 'T 432' end table, from 1950. This one has its original formica top that is missing its edging trim. The wood has a few small scuffs and scrapes, but overall its in great shape. I love the little cutouts on the legs underneath the table base, it's gives a great lightness and understated sophistication.

Emeco style, Canadian made metal desk/lounge chair, with arms

We found this nice metal desk chair, which is Canadian made, by H.H. Popham and Co. of Kingston and Ottawa, Canada, at the annual Fireman's May long weekend sale in Golden Lake for $1. It sold a couple of days ago via Craigslist, to an architect student from Ottawa. She said she saw my ad online because I referenced 'Emeco'. Emeco sell a similar 'Navy Upholstered' chair to this one, for $895 on their website.  We always buy all the metal furniture we see. It seems Canada has a good reputation for the industrial furniture of the 50's-60's.

Stainless Steel Lundtofte water pitcher, Denmark

We purchased this stainless steel water pitcher, made by Lundtofte, at the now defunct, Salvation Army in Pembroke, earlier in the year, for $1. I'm a sucker for anything with a label with 'Denmark' on it. Our collection of stainless steel is always growing. We're always on the lookout for anything marked "18-8", which is my personal favorite grade of stainless steel (and a mark of true quality, generally) particularly for vintage flatware.

Digsmed Danish teak candle sticks

I keep seeing these Digsmed teak candle sticks in various backgrounds in all the same boring style magazines (how hard is it to be stylish when you're rich? I want to see a magazine on cool looks with no budgets). I believe they come in at least 2 sizes, large and small. These are the small ones, approx. 3 1/2" high. We scored these for a $1 at the once-a-week thrift store in Deep River. Since then we've managed to pick up a few Canadian-made copies, but they're slightly chunkier and haven't been as elegant as these ones. Some Digsmed and Dansk stuff always seem to sell cheap on eBay (particularly their candlesticks & candelabras). Candlesticks (and teak) are one of those things we always buy when we see them in the field. They're beautiful, but somewhat useless, we don't seem to ever burn too many candles in htem. These ones are relegated to the basement graveyard for the moment.

Jan Kuypers / Donald Strindley for Imperial Furniture chair set

Whoohoo, 1st post! Since Sonya and I moved to Ontario three & 1/2 years ago we been impressed with the vintage picking our new locale allows. We live in the far outskirts of cottage country west of Ottawa.

This chair set was acquired at one of our favorite west end Ottawa Salvation Army's for $10 for the set. Sonya spotted them with her sharp eyes (like always), and we liked the danish lines on them (especially the matching pair). Cheap and cool, they're ours! The upholstery looked redone, and the fabric was a new striped cottom velvet. Overall, a great score, we figured we might use the dining chairs and maybe we'd store the lounge chair in our basement graveyard.

It was once we got them home that we noticed the Imperial Furniture sticker on the base of one of the matching chairs.

Then I took a look in our trusted copy of Design in Canada: Fifty Years from Tea Kettles to Task Chairs and there was a picture of one of the chairs saying it was designed by Jan Kuypers for Imperial in 1953.

The book also indicted that the armed chair was likely designed by Donald Strindley, first head of the National Industrial Design Council, and son of the owner of Imperial.

We ended up selling these to a nice real estate agent from Ottawa this summer through Craigslist. He and his wife had acquired the full 1953 dining set for $500 and wanted another couple of extra dining chairs. 


We've managed to find a few more Imperial/Kuypers pieces this summer, 2 more lounge chairs, and a really cool metal task chair that I'm pretty sure Kuypers designed for Harter Metal Furniture. I will post pictures and stories of those chairs soon.