As Garden Court Antiques’ Jim Gallagher explains: “A lot of these things you’d find in an English library. They get referred to as ‘hidden vices.’ In the Victorian era, everybody still liked to drink and smoke and play a little poker, but you sort of hide it a little bit.”
The deception extends beyond mere appearance. The chosen titles reveal the Victorian love of educated humor: three volumes of “Magna Britannia”—a legitimate and respected historical series documenting British counties—are joined by two volumes of “Liber Gelarum.” This latter title is a scholarly-sounding Latin pun: “gelare” means “to freeze” or “to chill,” making it quite literally the “Book of Chilling”—a subtle joke about its true purpose as a wine cooler.
Such intellectual playfulness was characteristic of Victorian novelty items, where the joy came not just from the concealment but from the clever details that rewarded those in the know. The craftsmanship matches this wit—convincingly tooled spines, careful aging of the leather bindings, and a perfectly fitted mercury glass insert demonstrate the marriage of function and sophisticated humor.
Details: Late Victorian Book Stack Concealed Wine Cooler, English, Circa 1880
Five book stack concealed wine cooler; three volumes of “Magna Britannia” and two of “Liber Gelarum” the top volume revealing a glass cooler/ice bucket insert; Late Victorian period.
height: 10 in. (25.5 cm.) width: 10 in. (25.5 cm.) depth: 10 in. (25.5 cm.)
Happy Earth Day! We are all aware of and trying to lessen our impact on the climate. Today, of all days, it’s not inconsequential to note that buying and holding onto your antique furniture is better for the planet.
I mean, as if anyone needs any other reason to buy beautiful antique furniture, a 2010 study on greenhouse gas emissions commissioned by the antiques trade 12 was tasked with answering the question: “Are antiques greener than new furniture? And if so, what is the difference between their carbon footprints?” It compared two specific chests of drawers, one from 1830 and the other a contemporary piece.
Ultimately, it was determined that the antique chest of drawers had a lower greenhouse gas emissions impact compared to the new chest of drawers. The life cycle emissions of the antique chest of drawers were less than those of the new chest of drawers. The new chest of drawers had a greenhouse gas emissions impact 16 times higher than the antique. Additionally, they determined that the new chest of drawers had higher emissions in raw materials, production, distribution, and storage compared to the antique. The longer lifespan of the antique and the lower emissions throughout its life cycle contribute to its greener profile.
As we say, buy what you love and buy in good conscience. Happy Earth Day!
…AND.. some stats for the nerds!
^jh
Graph: The typical life cycle emissions of the antique and new chest of drawers between 1830 and 2025
Graph: Green House Gas emissions per year of life in use associated with a new chest of drawers are 16 times higher than those of the antique.
Wandering through neighborhoods in Paris, you’ll notice that doorways are often flanked by low structures made either of stone or metal. These guard stones are called chasse-roues (French lit. “wheel chaser“) or bouteroue (“to push the wheel out of the way“). These projecting metal, concrete, or stone exterior architectural elements are usually located at the corner and/or foot of gates, portes-cochères, garage entries, and walls. They function to prevent damage from vehicle tires and wheels. During the period of horse-drawn vehicles, the wheels, including the hub, would protrude beyond the vehicle’s body, and were thus prone to collide with and damage a corner of a building or gate. Chasse-roues were developed as a warning signs: ‘keep back‘, ‘keep your distance’, ‘don’t brush up against me’, and as traffic bollards––or, in the common parlance, ‘traffic cones’ ⚠️😄. They are a historical item of street furniture and some are still in use today. 123
Stone was the favored material for chasse-roues during medieval and Renaissance times but many different cast iron designs were installed during the Haussmannian transformation of Paris. 4 Of the surviving chasse-roues in Paris, many are from that age of economical iron and steel. Cast iron was often preferred because it’s affordablity and versatility. Initially, a pattern or mould of the design––the most expensive part of the process––would be made. Then the molten cast iron would be poured or ‘cast’ into the mould and could take many decorative forms with each subsequent casting being relatively inexpensive to produce. Many ornamental cast-iron pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries survive today. These decorative artifacts represent a perfect union of form and function projecting a sense of strength, durabilty and good design.
When automobiles replaced fiacres5, chasse-roues no longer served their purpose being replaced by objects meant for automobile traffic, such as curbs and guard rails. They were, in fact, undesirable but because they were unusually difficult to remove, most of them were just left in place. Those that remain stand as silent sentinals to earlier traffic on those historic roads. 6
Today these architectural artifacts are treasured for historic reasons and are often protected as part of a city’s cultural heritage.
Combining contemporary art alongside antiques reflect the way Interior Designers innovate with their design projects today.
Next time you visit the showroom at 151 Vermont you’ll notice ‘temporary’ exhibitions of contemporary works of art.
Let us know what you think.
Currently in the Showroom we are featuring photographic works from Napa Artist, Lewis deSoto in conjunction with Laurie Ghielmetti Interiors. These ephemeral images were staged in response to the ‘destructive process’ of Land Art, a defining element of Postwar American art.
Lewis deSoto ARTIST STATEMENT Site Projects 1980-1986
The Site Projects were the step between my purely photographic work of the late 70’s and early 80’s and the sculpture that was to take precedent by 1989. The work was a philosophical response to “earthworks” sculptors like Smithson, Heizer and DeMaria. What issue was taken, was the destructive process (I mean this in digital terms, where the original is destroyed as a piece of data is constructed); bulldozers marked and moved the earth to serve their metaphorical purpose.
The Site Projects used the site as a stage that left a dwindling trace of my work there. I added a temporal element that was echoed in many works that took place during long camera exposures at night. These works dealt with notions of power and scale; like Chinese landscapes, these works compared the scale of the human against the overarching embrace
of the world, the stars and the galaxies.
Most projects began with drawings, some formalized instructions that could be reengaged at a later date or by myself or other artists. This was, in part, a response to the ephemeral nature of color print photography at the time. Now these works can be translated digitally and placed on paper with pigments for permanent display. The desired print size of the work has also grown over the years, starting at 18” x 18” and ending at 30” x 30” sometime in the early 1990’s. I have engaged larger sizes now that these are translated to digital media.
