BEST OF BRITISH DESIGN - PIEFF

The Pieff furniture company is a well-renowned, family-run business which operated during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Based in Lye, in the Black Country area of the west Midlands, Mr Bates ran the company with his two sons, both designing and making modern timepieces which still look great today.

Pieff furniture was a very big company in the sixties. It described itself at that time as

"Luxury furniture of the late 20th Century, characterized by its original design, flowing lines and usual blending of striking materials. Now used loosely to describe any design which is ahead of its time"

One of their main and earliest collections was the Eleganza Chairs, of which we often have many in stock.

They are described as (by Pieff):

"A collection of peace loving chairs. Solid mirror chromed steel, classically matched with soft wool fabric cushions. Or leather. Or suede. Group Eleganza around the dining or conference table"

Another piece from Pieff is the Crown dining table, described as

"Through smoky circle of glass the Crown table reflects the shape of things to come in every gleaming mirrored panel"

Another Pieff piece is the Eleganza T.T described as:

"Style is a specialty of the house. Lustrous chrome columns support straight or gently bowed table tops of black or brown ash or beautifully grained rosewood. The choice is so tempting, maybe you should make room for all of them"

"The Pieff collection reflects a certain lifestyle. A privileged one we admit. But then, Pieff is very exclusive furniture. A fact which is recognised not just in Britain, but through-out the world. Our designers are as individual as the people who own them. And our originality can be seen in each addition to our collection. Inspired ideas bring together exciting shapes, contrasting materials, textures and tones. The results are classically simple in concept, utterly modern in execution. The designer's imagination is matched only by the craftsman's consummate skill. And to complement both, we ensure that everything that goes into making Pieff furniture is of the finest quality. The touch is unmistakable. Which is why it may suprise you to learn that not everybody is impressed with the Pieff collection. But, of course, not everybody can afford to be."
Sold in Harrods and Heals and other high end furniture shops it was seen as quite exclusive. The used high quality materials, Brazilian Rosewood, leather, chrome and pirelli webbing. It has a touch of Hollywood regency to it and compliments most modern decor. A true best of British and definitely an antique for the future. Ranges included Eleganza, Lisse, beta, Mandarin, Gamma, Edel, T.T

THINGS IN MY HOME - MY LIVING ROOM

Finally got around to taking pics of the Living room which has many of the featured items of things in my home. I hate the pine, which will be the next mammoth job of painting white! Other wise its coming together I think
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RESTORATION EAMES FIBERGLASS SHELL CHAIR

I have been looking for a blue shell for ages for my living room and I found quite a battered one on ebay in america, it had holes drilled in the middle, terrible grey paint on the rear and missing shocks. Soooo I bought it at a reasonable price, but still had to pay an extra £20 on top because the customs charged me, even though it was sent as a gift. Anyhows, it arrived looking worse than I thought, but I new that I could lovingly restore it. Here are the pics in its bought condition.






So then I went onto trusty ebay and purchased some new shocks

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ORIGINAL-STYLE-EAMES-CHAIR-PARTS-SHOCK-MOUNTS-MOUNT_W0QQitemZ320423980595QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiques_Furniture?hash=item4a9ac1ee33&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

then decided that I would really like the cats cradle base, which was proving harder to find. Justin at http://www.pink-flamingos.co.uk/ did me the honour of ordering one in for me.

Now onto the chair, I did a browse on the internet and found these two blogs about restoring the chairs, which both worked out to be pretty good. I only changed a few things and used a few British products.

CHAIR FAG
http://chairfag.com/?p=3

BRICK HOUSE
http://trickmybrick.blogspot.com/

First thing was to sand the paint off the reverse, this was done outside by hand with various different grades of sand paper and finished off with a wet sand (it only took and hour and half and as said on the blogs is very itchy. I had to give it a light sand around the Herman Miller stamp as this too would have been sanded off. Finally it revealed a lovely blue fiberglass colour. The front of the shell had over the years gone to an almost aquamarine blue colour.

mmm... to fill those holes.... what to do.. I basically made a paste of wall filler, glue and poster paint to match colour, mixed it all together and filled the holes. I waited for it to dry and then sanded it off the front and then give the front of the shell also a light wet sand, they where solid and only a slight indentation to show there was holes there.

On the previous blogs they had used PENETROL to bring back the colour of the fiberglass and seal it with a glossy finish. I couldn't find this in the UK but after much searching on the internet found a boat substitute called OWATROL OIL. I also tried LINSEED OIL but it didn't quite restore the colour or seal it as well as the OWATROL OIL. I then left it for two days to dry. I glued the new mounts on and then fitted the base and here we have it!!!!!!!.







Finally I bought a Harry Bertoia seat cushion from ebay in america again, they fit almost perfectly on the chairs, truthfully as much as I love these chairs they are not that comfortable for sitting in!! and now its in my living room.

THINGS IN MY HOME - STILNOVO LAMPS, eduardo paolozzi, PENGUIN DONKEY ERNEST RACE, MURANO, teak monkey, VICTOR VASARELY, MARCO SPALATIN

Few more items in my lounge which I have collected over the years, am particularly passionate about original signed screen prints and serigraphs. Which I try and pick up from Ebay. Here's a few brief historys on the designers.

Victor Vasarely, born Hungarian: Vásárhelyi Győző (9 April 1906[1], Pécs - 15 March 1997, Paris) was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art. Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art. Vasarely died in Paris in 1997.

Ernest Race achieved national acclaim during the 1950's with his unique, forward thinking furniture designs. The Antelope chair, featured at the Festival of Britain in 1951, reflected the spirit of the age. With it's slender steel rod frame and balled feet, the Antelope chair echoed the scientific progress of the era into molecular physics. Ernest Race's Antelope chair is considered a classic and furniture design and is highly sought after.

In 1954, Ernest Race was awarded the Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale (the Italian “temple” of design) for his BA3 chair, which was designed 9 years earlier. The BA3 dining chairs were, for ease of assembly and shipping, made up of seven interchangeable parts. Initially made from sand-cast aluminium, and later made from die-cast aluminium, the BA3 chair was at the cutting edge of post-war design. Ernest Race excelled in a time when Scandinavian designers had seemingly cornered the market.

Murano glass has been a famous product of the Venetian island of Murano for centuries. Located off the shore of Venice, Italy, Murano was a commercial port as far back as the 7th century. By the 10th century it had become a well-known city of trade. Today Murano remains a destination for tourists and art and jewellery lovers alike.