A piece I found for Lee's business had pixilated me. It's a pretty creamer probably from the forties, which had Hall written all over it (not hard to recognize their work at all). But it wasn't marked and I didn't have the patience to try to pin it down and knew it wasn't worth fabulously much. But its condition is just perfect. It's silvered around the rim and has a decent applied design that I had noted in the description was "strongly reminiscent of ikebana." Turns out my instincts were right on both counts, as a kind EBAYER wrote me to give me the lowdown. (I had asked in the copy when I wrote the ad for Lee--his business, not mine, I repeat.) I think I paid forty cents for it, but its worth is actually closer to twenty or thirty dollars in that condition. Somebody is selling one in much worse shape starting at twenty. Easy for Lee to undercut here--and his is pristine. Anyway, it was Hall using the Forman company in occupied Japan that gave us this line. I like Hall things. They're durable and lasting (my Mom still has a large pretty Hall bowl that was her mother's that's been used forever). And yet they're never so pretty that you're afraid to use them. Hall bowls often have those pumpkin or squash ridges. I like that design element in the large bowls. I thanked the person, as it was very kind of them to let me know. I actually had Lee adjust the price upwards and change the search terms so the Hall collectors can actually find it. I added the Japanese name of the line, and gave them some more information from my research. Lee actually got an EBAY "fan letter" from somebody who bid on one item. They said they'd been EBAYING for years but his descriptions were the best they'd seen. Well that's how you move the objects. Never lie though. Just tout. I love these objects so it's easy to sing their virtues. Great design is as lasting as great poetry. Probably more so, since the English language could just click off some day. The thing now is to advertise your fifties items (and I find a lot) as "MAD MEN ERA." That was my idea. Yuppies love that stupid, sexist show. When men could smoke and treat women like pets. Collect them all. Quote Frank O'Hara and be sleek and an asshole. Only yuppies like that show. But they're good to sell to. They see "MAD MEN" in a listing or blond wood a la Danish Modern and they're all over it. Lemmings. It used to be "Eames era" that was the buzzword. And it still is, somewhat. But I do like fifties design. A lot of it. I really loved the sedate and staid furniture the set decoraters used in the homes in that adaptation of that Richard Yates novel. That was a pretty good movie. But the design choices were great. The walk in the forest was a really inspired scene (when they hang out with the mentally ill character, who pretty much plays the role of a modern Tiresias).
Above is a pic of three pieces in the Fuji (duse) line.
As I said, pretty, but not so pretty that you would feel bad about actually using the pieces. And they're very durable. Hall built tough.
Duse is a cool book by Laura Moriarty. All her books are cool.
If I had found the pitcher I might have had a hard time giving that to Lee lol.
I usually use fifties pitchers as watering cans. What's the word...thank you Renoir...arrosoir?
I'm jonesing for Zeisels. I never find them. There is a water pitcher she did all in black (stoneware) that makes me salivate. I would use it too. It's very Japanese. But it's very Eva Zeisl too. It was just a piece in her one line she did for Sears. But it's classic fifties design. One of her best. It's not a signature piece (like Schmoo or the gravy boats) but it's up there. It usually goes for well over a hundred on EBAY.
I have a thing for older pitchers, especially fifites, although this is probably late forties (maybe early fifties--I didn't need the date, really).
Some of the books produced in Occupied Japan are just gorgeous.
I have some wonderful Akutagawa volumes I got for a song. Many of them have fold out artwork on handmade paper.
Akutagawa is an interesting, tragic figure.
But when weren't Japanese novelists of that period tragic figures. lol
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