Riihimaki Piippu chimney vase

We found this handsome vintage glass vase by Riihimaki, Finland.

The vase is a lovely smoke-grey colour. We think the designer is Aimo Okkolin, and it dates from the 1970s. The shape is known as Piippu or chimney vase.

It's an elegant vase, in a good colour, and we really like that shape.

It's approximately 7 inches (18cm) high.

We put the vase in the art glass section of our store but it is now sold. You can see the store, here: Potshots store

Twin Bird, Japan. Retro home bar accessories. 1970s

If you're lucky enough to have a home bar, and your home bar is styled in a retro theme, then here's the very thing for you.

A fabulously retro water jug and matching ice bucket. The metal jug and ice bucket have semi-transparent lids, plastic liners for double insulation and are in a bright lime green colour. The ice bucket is marked Twin Bird on the base. Probably made in Japan in the 1970s, these two eye-catching home bar accessories would look great next to a bowl of lemons and limes.

In fact, they look so good, I'm off to build my own bar right now. Cheers.

PS We've opened a little shop on Etsy. You can see it here: Potshots on Etsy 

Soholm dish. Blue Series, Einar Johansen. Simple but nice.

A simple but pleasing little serving dish or trinket tray by Soholm, Denmark.

The dish is from the Blue Series, designed by Einar Johansen, It probably dates from the 1960s or early 1970s. The glaze contrasts are specially nice - a rich glossy dark blue with tones of earthy brown on the inside, the outer walls in a semi-matt black, almost leather-like, finish. The inner base of the dish is indented with a simple triangular repeat pattern. All of which, makes this item pleasing on the eye, and to the touch.

Simple but nice.

Frozen Daiquiri, anyone?

Wow. They really knew how to illustrate books in 1967. Well, John Alstrop and Eric Hill did anyway.

Published by Determined Productions Inc, San Francisco, in 1967, Booze is an amazing little illustrated book of some fifty-odd cocktail recipes. I've no way of knowing if the two designer/illustrators sampled any (or all!) of the cocktails before putting their colourful pens to paper, but they certainly didn't hold back. The pages are filled with vibrant and humorous images in a wonderfully typical 1960s psychedelic style.

It's a lovely little book. And goes quite well with a quirky little drinks tray we found recently which probably dates from the same era.

Cheers.

An abstract serving on this vintage platter. Poole Delphis.

A platter with such a generous serving of abstract design. This vibrant charger is full of fun and full of colour. It's from the Poole Delphis range and was probably made in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The pointed shape is known as shape 91. Unfortunately the plate is not signed so I'm not sure who the artist was - which is a shame because such an expressive technique deserves recognition.

An interesting and eye catching plate, for sure.

Vintage tin coasters for colourful cocktails. Worcester.

I've always been a bit of a sucker for colourful, geometric pattern. And when it comes in the form of vintage drinks coasters, I just couldn't resist.

These small tin coasters or cocktail mats have bold graphic designs and funky retro colours. I have an idea they were made by Worcester, England. They probably date from the 1960s or 1970s.

It seems a long time ago now that I submitted a blog-post on some funky table mats by the same maker. Remember these: 1960s Worcester mats

Footed dish in jade green. 1960s or 1970s.

A footed dish in a cool jade green colour. Made by Eastgate Potery (an off-shoot of Hornsea) in the 1960s or 1970s. 

Nice shape nice colour.

Mysterious girl. Stylish 1950s bust of a girl.

Here's something I found recently about which, I have to admit, I know nothing at all.

This beautiful head and shoulders of a girl is made from that sort of chalky pottery that easily chips. She's about nine inches high and is very much in the 1950s style. There's an unreadable signature on the back with the wording Bust No. 4. I wonder if there are more in the same style?

I like the stylised, exaggerated shape and the curved lines. The colours work well too.

A mystery she may be but I'll have to make room to display her somewhere.

Matching lamp base for Poole Freeform vase

It seems like ages ago when I did a blogpost on a Poole Freeform vase from the 1950s. Remember this:  Poole Freeform vase. 

Here is a matching item that I have had displayed with the vase. This item is actually a lamp base but I think it looks more elegant displayed without any of the fittings. The design is hand-painted, I think by Gwen Haskins, and I have an idea that it dates from the late 1950s or early 1960s.

André Hellé animals book from 1911

As well as my interests in pottery and glass, I do have a soft spot for vintage children's books. And I wanted to show you a good one I found recently. It's a wonderful book.

I picked up this vintage french children's book without knowing too much about it but the more I have looked into it, the more fascinating it gets. The book is Droles de Betes with words and illustrations by André Hellé. As far as I can discover, the book was produced in 1911 and that makes it all the more remarkable when you see the layout and the stylised, modernist style of illustration.

The first thing that strikes you about the book is its size, the book is roughly 17 by 12 inches (40x30cm), it's very big. The typography is beautifully done with hand-drawn text and titles, and the wording incorporates many quirky line drawings. The colour illustrations have been printed separately on white paper and tipped-in.

But it's the avant-garde style of the book that is so interesting. The animals are toy-like and so simplified. I imagine that this book must have looked very striking and innovative in 1911.

There are more excellent pages in the book and I'll show them in another blog-post soon.

There's more information on André Hellé on this blog by his admirers: André Hellé 

 

Vintage storage jars from the 1960s.

Just a quick blog-post to show three nicely textured vintage storage jars.

They're from the Portmeirion Totem range designed by Susan Williams-Ellis and were first produced in the 1960s.

The textures are great but I like the colours too.

More Portmeirion on Potshots: here and here and here

Groovy. Westminster vases 1960 1961

Here are a couple of vases by Hornsea pottery that I've always found quite pleasing to the eye. The range is Westminster (I don't know why) and it was produced in 1960 or 1961.

Hornsea seem to have perfected the technique of vertical grooving filled with colour, they used it on the beautiful Summit range, the Summertime range, and others. On this example the grooves are tapered and are very fine by the time they reach the bottom. As far as I know, there were only two sizes of Westminster vases made and only three colours were used. The colours are similar to some of those used on the Summit range so this range displays well with Summit. The pointed arch-shape at the top of the grooves is an elegant feature and the gently flared top is a nice touch too.

One of my favourites.

Hornsea Summit 1960 - 1965