Rosenthal

Doing Dallas

The Library on Parry Avenue with books, collectibles, ceramics, and silver on display.

The Library on Parry Avenue with books, collectibles, ceramics, and silver on display.

I’m the guy that moved into the loft directly across the street from Fair Park in Dallas the day the State Fair of Texas commenced. For the next three weeks, it was mayhem down here. Not to worry, I was a prisoner of the loft anyway, getting everything from the TPRB office and the Inwood Manor condo that had been in storage in Houston for past six months sorted and stowed. It was all the more important that everything be just so, since the loft is my home AND my livelihood. That it is so beautiful is due to the talent and hard work of interior designer and dear friend, Alice Cottrell, and her trusted jack of all trades and all-around miracle worker, Steven Hauser.
The loft is “done” and I’ve been working to launch my new endeavor – selling artist and architect designed objects; original art and editions; vintage ceramics; collectibles; rare art, photography, and fashion books; fashion and design collaborations; and commissioned objects by Texas artists to interior designers and directly to clients. I’ve gone to every event [“He’d go to the opening of a drain!”], talked to everyone, and have had enough delicious meetings/meals with fantastic people to need bigger pants. With a job providing thoughtfully chosen accessories for Alice’s latest Museum Tower project under my belt, some press coming out in January [fingers crossed] and a collaboration with the Donghia showroom in Dallas [see my next post], things are coming along. This gig is certainly not a “sure thing,” but people and the universe keep stepping in just when I wonder if it “will ever happen.” It has happened. It is happening.

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Chicken Little

Tapio Wirkkala's Pollo Vase, Rosenthal Studio Line, Germany 1970

Tapio Wirkkala’s Pollo Vase, Rosenthal Studio Line, Germany 1970


Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985) was perhaps Finland’s most famous internationally known designer. He brought his optimistic minimialism to thousands of objects from banknotes to cutlery, from plastic to porcelain, for some of the world’s most sophisticated manufacturers.
Wirkkala worked with Rosenthal AG in Germany for decades beginning in 1956, producing 15 porcelain tableware services and over 200 different objects. He carefully considered the ergonomics of these utilitarian pieces and he also developed an etched porcelain finish that was pleasing to the eye and touch that would be known as “silk matte.”
The “Pollo” vase pictured, designed around 1970 is one of my favorite Wirkkala designs. Available in a variety of sizes, this, the smallest “chicken,” fits comfortably in my palm. Made in black or white porcelain, all share Wirkkala’s silk matte finish – they are wonderful objects to handle. Rows of raised dots eminate from the “neck” opening that sits to one end of the “body” of the bird-shaped vase. Its bottom is rounded, so it rocks gently back and forth – an animated little thing.

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