Solair Chairs...from the dump

Designed in Montreal in 1972 by Fabio Fabiano and Michelange Panzini. I just got the black one for free yesterday from the dump's 'New To You' trailer, the orange one came from an end of year garage sale for $2.00. These chairs are really comfortable and have been reissued recently by a shop out of Toronto. It seems they're easy to pick up for $150 or less from several spots. It's nice the bases fold up so they take up much less space for winter storage. These will be deployed on our yet to be built front patio that's brewing for later this summer.

Andrew Fussell Sterling Silver 2 oz Jigger 1965

Hmmm, well I just woke up from a 5 month nap of sorts - I have had lots of stuff happening lately that seems to have made blogging a low priority. But one of my new years resolution was to get back on the blog horse, so here goes...

I found this hand hammered sterling silver 2 ounce jigger at a recent farm auction hidden in a box of random stuff I managed to catch for $1.00. It's made by Andrew Russell (1904-1983), from 1965, out of Toronto. Russell was born in Germany, and moved to Canada at 22. He learned his craft in Toronto night schools and later taught jewelery making in night classes.

I love that the arms on this are crooked, but they get a bit in the way when I have been mixing drinks with it. It looks great on the bar though!

Court Noxon Metalsmiths Roo Chair - Canadian boardroom classic

So Big Up! to the CDR site for posting the link to the awesome Court Noxon website. It's really inspiring, there was so much cool stuff that came out of the Metalsmiths studio. I don't think any of the Metalsmiths is marked, so you have to know what you're looking for. The site has been a great resource, most personally for the fact that it led to the identification of a set of 5 Metalsmiths 922 Roo chairs that we purchased at our local radio station's fundraising garage sale! We got all 5 chairs for a total of $5. When you pick these chairs up you know they're quality pieces - they are so freakin' heavy. "The flexible frame is cold rolled steel with polished chrome or oxidised bronze finish."  The upholstery on them is a bit saggy but is otherwise perfect. I sent a couple of emails to the Metalsmiths site since and have found out that these chairs are still in production. One of the original finish options for the metal was black chrome - I need some of that in my life...

Baribocraft Salt & pepper Mill

We use this badboy every day. It's got better action than the Quistgaard mill we scored at the same Pembroke Value Village. This was cheaper ($1 vs. $2), and it's Canadian, so it's much cooler. That's that.

Baribocraft Slate Cheese Cutting Board Tray - Baribocraft The Leading Name in Woodenware

You'll see old hammered dryed-out wooden Baribocraft bowls in pretty much every Salvation Army housewares section across Canada. Rarely, if ever, does it make the cut. Here's my exception: this awesome slate cheese tray cutting board that came out of a westside Ottawa thrift. $5. The best part was the original tags were lying on top. 

There's a good link to the back story on Baribocraft here.

Handmade Fox Feeding Tray Table new back porch Bar

We copped this nice mint green handmade wheeled table at a local garage sale over the weekend for $10. The lady who sold it to us said it was made by the the local furrier, Mr. Zummach,  who used the table daily to wheel out the food to all the foxes in the pens. I love the iron support struts, and the great colour. It's going to get set up on the back porch as the bar once we get new screened-in windows.

1940's vintage Gas Can

$2 from last week's garage sales

Canadian Office and School Furniture Limited wooden Chairs

We got this nice pair of chairs last weekend garage sailing. They're marked "Canadian Office and School Furniture Limited, Preston, Canada" on their bottoms. These chairs are seriously solid. They have rod supports in the runners, very heavy-duty. 

Ceramic Birds with a bronze iridescent finish made by Sarah Canada

We love birds. These came from the weekend garage sales. $1 apiece, they have this great iridescence to their finish. They're marked Sarah Canada (or is it Canada Sarah...?). Google gave up zero results except for a potentially related jewelery listing on RubyLane. I need more Sarah in my life! 

White Wrought Iron Hoop Garden Chairs

We got these nice hoop chairs over the weekend for $5 apiece. They're different from the usual ones we have. I love the bent legs on these, the webbing is in pretty good shape, they could use a bit of paint touch-up but they'll be great in the garden this summer. Thanks Value Village!

Canadian Bent Wood Chair

 

 

 

Sonya scored this little bent wood chair while we still lived out in Vancouver, from the awesome Cloverdale Sunday flea market.  We scored many, many awesome things from that crappy little flea (I'll post up a couple of examples later) like this chair. I haven't been able to ID a maker yet, but this is midcentury Canadian bent wood at its best. I love the curve of the back legs, the little handhold cutout, but most of all the underside of the seat! Sadly the dark staining isn't really matching up with the other stuff we have going on at the moment so this chair is unloved down in the basement graveyard.  

Walter Nugent Lounge Chair - circa 1960

  

 

It has taken me a few months to ID this Walter Nugent chair. I believe it's a variation on his C-15 lounge chair.This one has rounded legs and seem to have a lower stance than the one on the Canadian Design Resource site (which is the greatest Canadian design site around). There are another couple of different one on Flicker as well. I guess Nugent knocked these out for a decade or so, starting around 1960. The element that gives it away for me, are the chair's arms, there's a distinctive flair in the back 1/3 of the arms.

I love this little guy - we picked him up on the westside of Ottawa (home of best thrifting in Canada) one afternoon. The original upholstery was redone at some point with this jaunty grey wool stripe, there were no tags underneath. I think the wood is teak, but it may be oak or maple (actually it's made from walnut, Thanks John!).

Folding Bentwood Plywood midcentury Rocking Lounge Chair - best dump score EVER!

I don't know about where you live, but because we live outside a small town, we have a local dump where we go to on the weekends to get rid of our garage & recycling. Every small town dump out here has a small shack where people leave free unwanted usable items. Our shack is a leaky trailer called 'New To You'. This place is like our local mall, it has given up many gems to me over the past 3 years. You have to sort through a lot of cheap broken china, Jackie Collins paperbacks and stained corporate coffee cups, but there's always something there I walk away with. Records, lamps, stereo equipment, silverware, and quite a bit of furniture.

This rocking chair was coated in about 40 years of thick dust stashed in a dark corner. I saw the bent plywood arms and knew it was something special. Once I got it home and was able to sit in it, it became apparent that this is something special. It is really well designed. Obviously it fold up nicely, but the bent wood work is really awesome. The seat and back have lovely cutaway slats through the plywood. The arms might look a bit short, but they're actually perfectly positioned to be of maximum comfort. There's a runner across at the front of the rockers that sits perfectly for your heels to rest on so the rocking motion is effortless. Words and pictures don't do this chair justice. It is my new favorite piece of furniture, and given that it was FREE  I would say it will be the score of the year come December (but check back then to see...).

If anyone has ANY info on this beauty, please let me know. It must have been mass produced.

Pair of Metal Emeco Navy style chairs - Canadian made by Simmons Limited, Montreal

Yesterday was a great day! This darling pair of chairs came from a 'secret spot' from down around the way from us for $1. I love Canadian metal office furniture. Canadians seem to have taken the time to elevate small details of the design that really make a piece sing out. These steel chairs made by Simmons Limited of Montreal are no exception. The chair style seems to be very reminiscent of the aluminum Emeco Navy chair. But I think these chairs are so much cooler. They're more refined. The legs struts have a beautiful inner curve to them that really compliment finer gauge of the steel tubing that was used. The Emeco chairs look brutish by comparison. I also love their institutional paint jobs, peach & pale yellow. We'll probably take them to some chair bodyshop and have them sandblasted and repainted something else (any suggestions?). The seat pads will be an easy re-do and then they'll be sweeeet, and cheap. This guy wants $979.00 (per chair!) for something similar.

I would ballpark these chairs for being made around 1959. Simmons would go on to become a major international mattress company with their 'Beautyrest' line of products (below is a 1959 article).

Simmons has brought Canadian homes, hospitals, hotels and institutions a beauty and comfort never before known. The products made by the company cover the familiar range of merchandise for which it is famous, such as mattresses, beds, springs, pillows, cribs, Hide-a-Beds, sofas, chairs, and other dual purpose furniture. Nowadays it also includes an impressive range of metal furniture, for hotels, motels, hospitals and institutions, and furnishings for ships (berths, bunks) and for lumber and mining camps. Indeed, Simmons is the pioneer manufacturer of metal bedroom furniture in Canada. Every detail, no matter how small, receives careful supervision and inspection. The Simmons' products combine the strength and durability of steel with the beauty and distinctive charm of the furniture makers' art. It is a simple job to keep Simmons' metal furniture lustrous for years because it has no cracks or crevices, and metal in itself gives protection against mice, vermin, warping and twisting. 

I need more of this furniture in my life.

Pair of 60's Canadian chairs with Stainless Steel frame and Wood armrests

We scored this pair at the Renfrew Salvation Army (great place, great staff) for $5. I'm not sure what kind of wood the armrests are from but I would guess oak. I'm not sure if the upholstery is original or not, it remind me of some beach towels we used to have. Sadly there's no tags on them, but the mix of stainless steel and wood is really appealing.

 

Danish Furniture Importing Company Ltd. - Pair of midcentury modern teak dining chairs

Actually I'm not sure if these chairs are teak or stained oak, but the label says they were made by the Danish Furniture Importing Company Ltd.. Google didn't generate a single hit on this Toronto based company, but the chairs look mid-60's or so. They kind of faintly remind me of Hans Wegner designs. At some point they were reupholstered and one chair is missing a back slat. I assume they're dining chairs from their high backs. We scored them from one of our 'down-low' spots way west of Ottawa, $10 for the pair. I don't think they'll get used by us, as we already have the sweetest dining room set ever made by a Canadian in the last century (and to be featured here later this spring, so please check back!).