Thursday, June 12, 2008

Design Love: patent illustrations


In some of my wanderings through the interwebs lately, I've been soaking up some random trivia. You know how it is: you start by looking up one thing, which leads you to another and another....

For example, while looking at outdoor furniture, I learned that my beloved 1940's-ish metal porch glider was made by the Atlanta Stove Works Company. (Makes a weird kind of sense since I'm in Atlanta.) Which lead me to a search for info on Atlanta Stove Works (no longer around), which lead me to THIS fascinating site.

They have patent illustrations available for purchase, and pretty affordable at that. I think that a framed grouping of the illustrations could look fantastic in the right setting.

In the Farm and Garden section, under Porch and Patio there's a wealth of interesting illustrations. Here's more or less my glider (patent actually from 1954!):


Here's another glider with what looks to me like an interesting, abstracted wheat sheaf detail:

And there are some definite Art Deco influences in this glider and chair. I love the streamline arm style on the glider:



Much more can be found on the Patent Place USA website, including some patent illustrations by Eames and Loewy. Happy hunting.

6 comments:

Miss Janey said...

MIss janey LOVES vintage patio furniture- yet owns none. She and the Mister do not concur on this passion. Miss J would love to have set of rattan furniture with barkcloth cushions for the TV room and would adore one of those metal gliders for the front porch. One day she'll just show up with one, and it'll be a done deal.

Silly Monkey said...

Oh, Miss Janey! That's what I want to do in my new office. I want a rattan couch and chair with deco arms, similar to Miss Dame's last illustration. And I want tropical barkcloth cushions. I think with the art deco fireplace, they'll look awesome.

I have some of Restoration Hardware's reproduction metal chairs. I was surprised to see on that site that the designs are from '52. I thought they were older.

My neighbor has one similar to the second photo, and they painted it--GAG--black and red.

The Woodshedder said...

Miss J, now you're talking my language: rattan pieces with barkcloth = yummy. My fairly hip parents actually have a new spin on that idea, with reproduction barkcloth, in their sunroom, and it looks great!

Silly Monkey, I'll see if I can dig up a pic of a deco-ish rattan sofa that I used to have; I think it would be right up your alley. Unfortunately, it went to a new home last year, and I'm still a little sad about it.

And even as a UGA grad, I gotta say, a red and black glider sounds just WRONG! Ha!

Silly Monkey said...

Oh, no! Why did the sofa leave?

If you ever find anyplace selling the deco rattan furniture, let me know. Either old or not. I've visited a lot of rattan places with a lot of different styles, but never that one with the round arms.

Anonymous said...

Hi
Wow,I love checking your blog.You always stumble acorss the best places on the net and then enlighten us:)I would LOOOOOVE To Have A Few Prints To Hang In My Sunroom.I snagged a glider last year from www.vintageglider.com Couldnt afford one of the sexy restored ones but hell it still glidesas good as those.I hope to make hubby put a paint restoration on it next summer.TaTa ladies!!

Summer

Unknown said...

Oh I want a Metal Porch Glider so much . We had one on our front porch when I was young in the 50's .
Not sure what dad did with it , I loved it so much . I hope to put one on our back deck with pillows on it .
Mary