I WON IT.....I WON IT......I WON IT ....THE FORTUNY "MELAGRANA" IS COMING HOME

I think it is quite obnoxious of me to gloat and make THE MELAGRANA cover the entire width of the blog----but I am so excited that, even 5 hours after the fact, I am still jumping up and down.

I owe the win to auction STRATEGY and my sticking to my budget and game plan: The Melagrana was estimated to sell for between $3000 and $4000.....there was no possible scenario in which I could pay that much. But there are some auction tricks and collecting secrets that I have gleaned and that I'll share:

Secret No. 1. True Collectors value total authenticity. If the dress/tunic had been created in the 1920's by Mariano Fortuny, himself, then the estimate would have perhaps been on the low side. But the tunic was most probably fabricated in the 1960's (remember the zipper detail?) and it is not very well made. It is super attractive, but not for collectors of designer clothing. So that knocked out two (Couture and Fortuny Garments) types of collectors. Which, of course, left textile collectors (me). But the tunic was not listed as a textile, but rather as a designer garment (so maybe the textile collectors didn't know about this item??).............

....I thought that I just might have a chance.

SECRET No. 2. Sometimes, when an Auction Lot does not sell, it's possible to submit an offer that is below the reserve (or minimum bid). The auction house will then contact the consignor to obtain approval to sell the lot.

SECRET No. 3. Be a long-time loyal and consistent client of the auction house. In other words, we are on a first-name basis and the house will sometimes do little favors for their good clients. (Me)

My game plan: 1. Do not go to Auction. 2. Do not tell anyone (except Gerry) that you want the Fortuny. 3. Be prepared to put money down. 4. Pray that The Melagrana doesn't get a bid. 5. Check to see if it sold within a short period of time 6. Submit an offer that is reasonable. Although I may have wanted to offer a much lower amount; it is offensive to both the auction house and to the consignor.

I followed My Plan to the letter---and sure enough, The Melagrana didn't get a high enough bid (and was "passed"). I made my offer; it was accepted and ........everyone is happy (I hope). IT'S MINE NOW!!!!

I am so grateful.

I've already started searching EBay for the perfect backing fabric for the pillows--the cotton on which the pattern is block printed in called "museum" cloth, which is much heavier (and more desirable) than the more fragile Egyptian cotton usually used by Fortuny--so the backing must be a heavy silk. The perfect fabric will show up with just a little bit of focus and patience.

Well, I've got more work to do before bed--Thanks for staying with for this wordy post.

Blessings for the week!!

Mary & Cole

Here is a shot of Sabi and Kingston--Brotherly Love.

They are usually found like this or side-by-side.

LIGHTENING UP---A Little More

HAPPY EASTER

I have been joining the many Oprah/Deepak Chopra 21-Day Series "mini-retreats" ever since their inception about 4 years ago. My journey has become so much lighter over the past 4 years and I know that is partly due to the many Oprah/Deepak "mini-retreats" and to a commitment to my wholeness (and Boy! has it been a journey). The current 21-day Meditation is appropriately about "Lightening Up" (living in the moment and healing)....even though the first week completes today, I recommend checking it out. (You can catch up on 5 days which is almost from the beginning)

Auction Preview (down to business)

When I walked into the Auction House on Wednesday (you can see the entrance in top photo), the first item that I saw (and I was blinded to anything else) was this stupendous mid-19th century style Louis XVI-style dining table. (The form is like my own dining table that I had purchased when we lived in Spain.) This one was perfect for me as it collapses into a 48" round drop-leaf table (shop is space challenged)--BUT when fully open, reaches 96 inches. (An additional 24" leaf could be added for a total of 120 inches.) 

My Japanese Sendai Tansu left for Connecticut on Wednesday and I left the space open for my (hopefully) new table--energetic pull.

So, remembering my commitment of the last post: "to fearlessly step up my game" I decided that come-what-may, I was going to get that table.

The next morning I was at the auction bright and early to bid on a couple of items that went too high. I knew it would be a very long day (my first week back after almost six weeks out with that damn pneumonia) and I needed to be careful. The auction dragged on-and-on-and-on.......still the table was a long way off. I had also been waiting to bid on a lot of four Staffordshire 19th c. lions--they sat on a cart waiting to go to the block for over an hour (which meant that I had to stay focused or there was a very good chance that the lions would slip past if I lost my concentration). I finally bought the lions......

Three PM came and went and still THE TABLE had not come to the block...I didn't want to request that the table be brought up because the "Heavy Hitters with tons of $$$ were all there and I didn't want to draw  attention to the table. About 3:15 I asked the auction house owner about the table (I knew that Don was probably pretty tired) and he said that he wanted to "do" it next week.........that was fine because in this game of poker, the chances were good that it would go for less $$$ and the Heavy Hitters would be on to something else.  I went home and started thinking about my intention to "fearlessly step up my game" and decided to call Don in the morning and make him a good respectable offer on the table.

I spoke with Don on Friday morning and made him a good offer, which Don said was very fair. He first needed to check with person who obtained the consignment before giving me the OK. Don came back on the line and said that they were giving me the table for $300 LESS than my offer........I was speechless. And then I asked: is this gift because I got better and am back? (I've been a faithful client for 25 years) and Don replied "Yep- Welcome Back." I've been on a high for the past 3 days. Grateful to have such good friends and grateful to have honored my commitment to myself to be more fearless. And here is My Table in shop and looking very pretty (perfect fit).

Here are photos of a very comparable table on 1stdibs which is priced at $12500

Not too shabby. My table will not have that price point, but my profit margin will be just about where I want it to be. 

I did buy a couple of other items-- A signed & numbered Vasarely Lithograph (photo taken lying down on cart on way to Explorer)

And a pair of Hollywood Regency benches (1950s? or earlier) Roberto will spiff them up and shine the lacquer to a gloss--I love the vintage silk strie velvet upholstery that is in superb condition.

Well, I think it's time to climb back into bed. 

Have a wonderful day with family and friends celebrating the blessings of Spring, Easter and the freshness of life.

Mary & Jones & Cole

LIGHTENING UP WITH GRATITUDE--SPRING IS HERE (a Little Glammy)

I'm getting back to normal and I'm so grateful to G and everyone else who kept MJH DesignArts running. This March has turned out to be my best "sales" month EVER. Even though I wasn't present, my friends watched over shop ensuring that customers called me and 1stdibs and Chairish kept doing "their thing" also. For me, the gift of friends and new relationships are proof that God has set up the Universe for all of us to be connected. I am in awe when I consider how important each of us is in maintaining a positive connection to all; yet the universe will merrily hum along without us. 

Roberto and I chipped away at the small disaster that awaited me: many items had been sold (bare spots), many items out of order, lots of dust, etc. The back wall was reorganized (it's a little dark back there)--the super large shell mirror is centered over a c. 1950s/1960s 3-part Drexel cabinet and just below it is an unusual solid bronze (and very heavy) faux coral chandelier. My Japanese mirror black porcelan Marbro lamps frame the mirror--now maybe those lamps will sell?? As I study the photo, I'm wondering if there is a way to turn the chandelier into a sculpture? It looks pretty spiffy beneath the mirror.....

After many, many months these bedside chests were finally ready to be picked up (or so I thought...). Over the past few months, every time I arrived to pick up these chests, there was something not quite right and which required a bit of touch up or an additional coat of lacquer--today was no exception: there are a couple of rough spot to the top of one chest. But I am "done" with this lacquer person: I need to put my creative energy elsewhere. I love the 1960s/70s Italian chinoiserie lamps paired with the ivory chests--and the chests sit on black lacquered chinoiserie stands echoing the black lacquer lamp bases. 1960s Palm Beach here we come.......

Today is auction preview--I haven't been very lucky in buying the past few weeks, which makes me realize that I need to fearlessly step up my game (ie. be willing to bid higher). I guess that I've become a little spoiled: I started buying good period antiques when no body else was and now that designing with antique furniture is making a comeback, I need to be more flexible. (Just about everything that I have sold this year has been either 18th or early 19th c.)

Wish me luck.

Blessings for the day.

Mary & Jones & Cole

RAIN--SNOW--DOGS

I am so grateful.....rain and snow have finally come to Southern California. After years of praying for rain and a good winter snow pack, it has finally arrived. We still need a lot more to recover from our 4 year drought; it's happening.

(I grabbed this photo from Google images which said it was from the San Bernardino Mountains??) Jones looked a lot like this when he was a puppy--except he was black and started turning blue when he was about a year old. Sweet memories.

Now, on to important things like Venetian stemware. I am not talented photographically. I could put it on my to do list of things to improve on, but it just doesn't inspire me that much. However, when I happen to take a photo that turns out to be half-way decent, I feel a little rush of pride. The Venetian stems that I bought on Thursday (without previewing them--and that's a no-no) turned out to be pretty good--wish there were a few more..... Today I took a few shots of the stems (after I had polished them with Windex)

Not too bad. The stems are really pretty--I love the cobalt blue of the coupes and the mouth blown twisted balls forming the stems.

Claudia Strasser, author of The Paris Apartment, has challenged herself to revamp, refocus and increase the revenues of her business, The Paris Apartment, in 2016.

I love Claudia's blog and this challenge is exactly what I needed to inspire me. I had already planned to redo shop and expand a bit; Claudia has reinforced my gut motivations. Thank you, Claudia, for this 365-Day Challenge. I will be following (perhaps imitating) your daily posts and progress.

Hope that your 2016 has been great so far.

Blessings,

Mary & Jones & Cole 

JUST A QUICKIE

Jones went to the groomer yesterday--doesn't he look handsome? And, best of all, he is almost fully recovered from vestibular desease. It is hard to believe that my boy had his 9th birthday earlier this month.

And now for an update shot of Cole who pretends to be not too smart.

And finally an update on Mia

  

That's Mia in back with her older sister, Lauren, trying to brush Jones before he went to the groomer. As you can see, Jones is much bigger than Mia, but she managed to overcome her fear of him and took him on a walk "all by myself"--Jones loves the girls and will just about let them do anything to him (within reason and within about 2 hours of their coming to visit. After that, he's done with the show). Mia continues to flourish. You would never imagine the 1.5 years that she went through with the brain tumor. She's just a normal 4 year old. Yes, she must be on heavy supplemental hormones and constant monitoring at Children's Hospital Orange County and St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Tennessee and her parents do receive $90,000 dollar healthcare bills (Oh, Yes!). But her Dad was fortunately to have excellent insurance and there have been many blessings. Mia has started to grow with the start of replacement growth hormones and she's catching up with her sisters. We are all so grateful for all of the prayers that were offered for Mia's healing. Thank you.

Have a wonderful summer week-end.

Mary & Jones & Cole

UPDATES AND NOTES ON RESTORATIONS

Here is Our Mia and Lauren and Kaia on Thursday evening.

Kaia is the "girly" child--loves her bows and jewelry!

Next week will be the one year anniversary of the start of the adventure of Mia's healing. It has been a tumultuous year filled with hope and fear, embracing the unknown, incredible joy and sadness and the pain and redemption of growth for all of us. Most of all, Mia's parents--James and Grace have grown in love and strength and faith. I am so proud to have witnessed their walk. We are all inexpressibly grateful for all of the care, love and prayers of an infinite number of individuals. Being admitted to St. Jude's Children's Hospital Tennessee for their proton radiation study; simply living in Orange County California which has one of the top 5 children's neurology centers in the US (20 min. from home); the support of our families--especially Grace's Mom who almost lived at James and Grace's home for the many months of intense care (I was only "morning mom"). Whenever I consider how all these elements miraculously united to bring the best to Our Mia, my heart overflows with awe. Thank you to everyone who prayed for Mia--all of our prayers are yielding fruit. There is still a long road to go.....the pressure on the optic nerve has affected her right eye, hopefully a restarting of her pituitary will occur naturally and other healing processes will kick in over the next year or so.

MY MID-CENTURY HERITARE CREDENZA

Well, it is progressing, but with a bit more than the usual ups-and-downs of the restoration process.

Here is a glimpse of sections of the credenza before restoration

And here is Roberto removing the hardware for polishing--this step alone is quite time-consuming......

Here is a shot of what the large door handles look like now that they are all polished--just a bit of finish work left on these guys. The brass handles and their frames measure over 6" in length--gorgeous!

Now.....for the trials and tribulations of restoration work: Roberto carefully removed all of the parts of the handles and we counted them together and put them in a box. When Andrew opened the box to start polishing the hardware, 3 of the (don't know the name of these parts..) were missing!!! (Huge Sad Face)

Have no idea how this happened; have looked high and low to no avail; must be leprechauns (and I am 95% Irish).

These are the little F______ that are causing all of the trouble.

Carlos can make me new ones--we will have to make 4 so that they match on the two drawers pulls that need them and it will be very pricey to cast and polish and then add back the patina that would have naturally occurred.........Such is life.

I met Flavio at my space at The Collection on La Cienega on Thursday (it had been almost 100* on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). At first glance I loved what I saw (but it was super hot, no parking, rushing to get back to OC to watch The Girls at 4:45 and THURSDAY FREEWAY TRAFFIC)--but I wasn't taking in all of the details. The restoration of the case lacquer is fantastic--perfection!! The door and drawer fronts are not what we had decided at all--although they do look good. Check it out

I was hoping to have this piece ready for the La Cienega Legends of Design Event this week.....and I guess that just isn't going to happen. The drawer fronts and drawers were supposed to have a white lacquer finish that allowed the graining of the wood to show through. This is a rough stained finish that hasn't been properly finished or sanded........such in life......everything is fixable at this point.

DAYBED UPDATE

The Beidermeier or perhaps Louis Philippe walnut day bed is almost complete.......once again the tribulations of restoration.........(ayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!)

And here she is

What I am definitely learning (having it engraved in my brain) is that, although I think that I am communicating very effectively, apparently I am not.

Although Flavio repeated what was required for both the credenza and daybed while we were together; I really needed to follow up those communications with another conversation to remind him of what we had decided (Roberto has spoiled me--he never needs to be reminded and he asks questions if not sure). 

Also, I had another miscommunication with someone: who knew that some people thought that the first week in May was last week; and others (the vast majority and myself included) think that the first week in May starts today? (I did a bit of research on this: No.1 choice: 1st week of month is the first COMPLETE week of that particular month. No.2 choice: first week of the month is when the majority of days (ie. at least 4) fall within that week). Obviously, I didn't show up for something that I had committed to being at on "Thursday of the first week of the month"....my take away is that I need to remember to hammer down the details of what I assume is clearly understood. (Directly from The Four Agreements: Make No Assumptions)........ayyyyyyyyy!

AND FINALLY--THIS WEEK'S AUCTION SCORE

I spotted these amazing lamps in the "junk/low-end" section of Thursday's auction. I thought that they were pretty fantastic. So I arrived in LA promptly at 9:00 am for the start of the auction--only to have to wait for 1.5 hours for them to come to the block.

  

It turns out (I turned over these enormously heavy lamps-I guess no one else bothered or were intimidated by their weight) that these beefy guys (they measure a full 35") were created by Chapman and probably date to the late 70's or early 80's (see prior post). Anyway, I SCORED!! But the polishing process is going to be arduous (I will be listening to Andrew's vociferous protestations for several days). I ordered a 1.1 lb. tin of Maas Metal polish from ebay--about 1/8th of the cost of buying the little tubes at the hardware store.

These bruisers will be amazing when spiffed up and a new silk-wrapped cord added. I think I'll switch out the black shades from the Frederick Cooper brass lamps for white ones and then use the black shades for these Regency Style lamps.  I need to schedule Lupe to come next week to rewire the lamps--too heavy to take to his shop.

JONES GOT HIS HAIR DONE

My boy is once again looking handsome (one of his favorite words)--his all day trip to The Spa seems to have tired him out.

  

We are all having dinner together at Mia's house (except Jones--he gets overly excited and mistakes Mia for another dog--not great). So I'm not going to the shop......and it has cooled down from 97* to a cool 80*.

Hope everyone is enjoying a gorgeous spring day......with no more rain/snow for you guys on back East.

Be well,

Mary & Jones & Cole

               ***GRATITUDE***

  IT  RAINED  ALL  DAY  YESTERDAY--

    AND IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO....

                  ***********

Wishing ya'll a happy week-end.

Mary & Jones & Cole

        

GRATITUDE

I love my orchids. For the past 6-7 months (maybe more) I have watched patiently as my orchids sat on the south facing kitchen window sill and were (to my eyes) not doing much. I talked to them often and watered them infrequently, their leaves were deep green and fat and strong..........but I didn't see any new flower spikes emerging. So I continued to talk to them and just let them "be".....

About three months ago, I noticed tiny little nubs beginning to emerge from the bloom spikes and about a month later...four NEW bloom spikes started to show their heads from the bottom of the plants. (It is not an easy trick to get those new bloom spikes)

So for the last two or more months, I have been watering a bit more and talking a lot more to my babes...I have a total of 13 new bloomers from 5 little plants. Every time I walk into the Kitchen there they are as if they were waving to me...........

I am full of gratitude--I am finally learning to let things just be; to follow their natural course; not being terribly invested in the particular outcome; simply being present and applauding what is.

And here are THE BABES

Aren't they gorgeous--and so happy.

New goal--better photography: new camera? new computer? new software?  (Maybe just a cleaner kitchen window sill?)

Have a wonderful Spring Day.

Mary and Jones (& Cole)