Walter Nichols Chinese Art Deco rug with circle motif c. 1935
Walter Nichols Chinese Art Deco rug c. 1935
WALTER NICHOLS China
Chinese Art Deco rug c. 1935
Walter Abner Burns Nichols was one of the most colorful of the American adventurer/entrepreneurs in 1920s China. The Nichols name has come to be used almost synonymously with the ‘Chinese deco’ rugs manufactured in Tientsin, China in the 1920s and 1930s. Nichols did not originate the Chinese deco style, but he did a great deal to popularize it and to maintain its high standards of manufacture.
Nichols began in his youth as a first-class wool grader who went to Tientsin around 1920 to work for the Elbrook family of wool merchants. Nichols started his own business a couple of years later. In a brochure he produced in the late ’20s, with the assistance of Pande-Cameron, he announced: “In 1924 W.A.B. Nichols of Tientsin, North China, introduced the Super Chinese Rug which has become world famous. It is known in every market as the most durable and beautiful product of the modern Chinese weavers art and adorns the homes of people all over the earth.”
Tubular chrome base with exotic wood and burl, glass inset half tops.
For more information see: Deutsche Stahlrohr Möbel, Alexander von Vegesack (München: Bangert Verlag, 1986), Bauhaus Furniture: A Legend Reviewed, exhibit. cat., Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin, 2002.
Smaller table: 22″ H x 17″ D x 26 1/4″ W.
Larger table: 24 1/2″ H x 17 1/2″ D x 29 3/4″ W.
Ingegerd Torhamn Art Deco / Modernist rug c. 1930 (Exhibited: Stockholm Exhibition 1930)
INGEGERD TORHAMN (1898-1994) Sweden
Modernist rug c. 1930
Hand-knotted wool
Signed: it (Ingegerd Torhamn) lower left
Exhibited: Stockholm Exhibition 1930, Stockholmsutställningen 1930, Villa 42; V.I.P. in Swedish Design, Kalmar Konstmuseum 1996.
Illustrated: Katalog Över Bostadsavdelningen: Stockholms Utställningen 1930 (illustrated in situ) Stockholm Exhibition1930 (Stockholm: Tryckt Hos Bröderna Lagerström, Boktryckare, 1930) p. 149
Drawing illustrated: V.I.P. in Swedish Design: Axel Larsso, Ingegerd Torhamn, Inga Linden & Paula Sokolow, Arkiv for Svensk Formgivning, Kalmar Konstmuseum
For more information see: Svenska Textilier 1930, Stockholm 1930, Nils G. Wollin, plate nr. 50
Dimensions: 7’2” square
One of the ten rugs of her designs (including this rug as part of the music room) exhibited at the important Stockholm Exhibition of 1930 is now in the permanent collection of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
Mellerio Paris Rare French Art Deco “Gyroscope” sterling cigarette box c.1930
MELLERIO PARIS Italy/ France
Gyroscope cigarette box c.1930
French silver (950 silver standard) in a structural form of a gyroscope with a lever for an interior lifting mechanism, gilding
Marks: Mellerio Paris, 3776 D, head of Minerva French guarantee mark for 950/1000
H: 5 1/4″ x Dia: 4 1/4″
The renowned Mellerio family and their jewelry can be traced back to Lombardy, Italy as early as the 16th century. Some family members moved to Paris and became royal jewelers for Louis XIII. The revolutions of 1789 and 1848 interrupted their business and they moved to Madrid where they became the jewelers favored by Queen Isabel II. Later in the 19th century they returned to Paris where once again they prospered and participated in several international expositions including London (1862), Paris (1867, 1878 and 1900), and Vienna (1873). In the 20th century they exhibited at the renowned Paris 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and then in New York at the 1939 World’s Fair.
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