garden stool

A Little Bit of Everything from Barrie Benson and Others

I have a question for my fellow bloggers out there…What do you do when you find you want to add to or update posts and topics you have already covered? There is the classic, oops, I forgot about that photo and also the selective perception issue, where after you write about something you see it everywhere. Case in point, my brass drum stool…

April’s House Beautiful brought this one in a stylish bathroom by Charlotte based designer Barrie Benson.

I had already discovered that I forgot to include this photo from Schuyler Samperton‘s portfolio in my post.

Love the complimentary brass balls warming this icy cool bedroom from Plum Pretty Sugar.

And then I found this one at Milk and Honey Home while looking for spring flower branches.

In the meantime, Joni at Cote de Texas had recently posted this absolutely perfect room which I had never seen before. I have a pretty encyclopedic memory for any space, but this one is new to me, so I need to write to her and find out where it is from. But I am including it here both because I love it, but also because there is what looks to be a Japanese Seto porcelain garden stool sitting in front of the main sofa. Now that is something you never see!

Speaking of that Barrie Benson bathroom, here is the view across the room with its gorgeous campaign style vanity.

Which reminds me that I have been meaning to mention Jenny of Little Green Notebook‘s newest project. Remember the kitchen island she made out of a dresser that I showed in my repurposing furniture post?

Now she has changed it out for one she made from an old campaign dresser. Yowza, that girl is the best DIY decorator ever! Click here for the details…

I also ended up scrolling through Barrie Benson’s portfolio and came across these two old friends hanging on the walls…

And while we are at it, there is always room for more Japanese glass fishing float inspiration, whether it be subtle, as in this Scott Currie beach house (note the rope banister too)…

…or fairly over the top via The Enchanted Home! Floats with baskets, cut down altar table for a coffee table, giant planter and Madeline Weinrib rug, – gorgeous, no?

Don’t forget to click into my last post and enter the giveaway for the ZAK + FOX pillow! Simply leave a comment on my post and then hop over to Zak’s site and enter your name in the mailing list.

Mar 24, 2012 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Glass, Interior Design Tags: Ancestor Paintings, Ancestor Portraits, Barrie Benson, brass drum stool, fishing floats, garden stool, Japanese glass floats, Schuyler Samperton, Scott Currie, Seto

Made for Export and in My Basement…Seto Porcelain Garden Stool

As I wandered through the stuffed-with-junk antique stores here in New Jersey last week, I stumbled across this small Japanese Seto porcelain tea-cup and saucer. Based on its traditional Western style and shape, it was most likely made for the export market somewhere around the turn of the 20th century. This reminded me once again, that although I am a blue and white porcelain junkie in Tokyo, many of my best finds have been made abroad in the US and England. And those finds are not limited to ceramics, but also glass, silver and just about anything that could be exported.

Fine sometsuke (underglazed cobalt porcelain) has been produced in Seto City and Aichi Prefecture for about the last 200 years, although the region boasted one of the six old kilns of medieval Japan and produced pottery since the 14th century. I bought my first piece in Hong Kong 14 years ago, a square planter, drawn to the brilliance of the cobalt and the feathery painting style of the artist. Ironically, I got it for a great price as the Chinese don’t tend to value Japanese porcelain. That piece lives happily in my Tokyo living room with two siblings, found at shrine sales.

Over the years I have accumulated many more pieces, including these lovely jubako (stacked food boxes)…

…and this cricket cage and covered fan box.

Thanks to a recent Kawagoe trip, I now have 2 big fish bowls.

One of the most beautiful and rare Seto items are garden stools. A fixture in China for 1000 years, porcelain garden stools have become one of the basic staples of home decorating, but they were actually used in gardens originally. Some find them ubiquitous these days, but they continue to fill that niche between seat and table and their variety of color and design means there is a place for them everywhere. I could do a 20 photo post on amazing rooms with them, but I’ll limit myself to some blue and white ones. All Chinese as there are many more on the marketplace, and I have yet to see a Japanese one in a magazine spread.

A few posts ago, I featured the home of Brazilian designer Sig Bergamin, but did not include this photo. A blue and white garden stool sits at the edge, ready to hold a drink for the person lounging in the white chaise.

Jeffrey Bilhuber is one designer who uses them all the time to great effect. This one has lovely open fretwork on the side.

Back in 1997-1998 there was a pair of Japanese stools at a shop in Cat Street in Hong Kong that I couldn’t afford. I had never seen any like them and I fantasized about them for years. No photo of course, but they live in my memory as being hexagonal. In 2005 I found one on my first trip to Kyoto, not long after we had moved to Japan. I didn’t buy it then either, but I did take a photo! Not a great photo, but it shows you how seriously I was thinking about it. Although in retrospect, it wasn’t that great of a garden stool either.

So the tea-cup at the top of the post reminded me of the amazing find I made last summer, that somehow I had forgotten about in all the hullaballoo and busy-ness of my life.

I went down to the basement and found this. What do you think is in here?

This!

I haven’t stopped to clean it or anything but am absolutely bowled over by it! It has so many of my favorite motifs – cracked ice, fan vignettes, open fretwork – and the form and painting is spectacular. And I had literally forgotten that I had ever bought it! My swiss cheese brain is starting to worry me….

Now the question is, how do I get it back to its family and friends in my Tokyo living room?

Related post: Colors of the Rainbow…Blue and White Porcelain is Neutral. And more on porcelain garden stools at Apartment Therapy.

Image credits: All photos by me except 6. Elle Decor April 2011 photo credit: Simon Upton, 7. design by Jeffrey Bilhuber, Photo credit unknown.

Jun 24, 2011 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Porcelain and Pottery Tags: blue and white, garden stool, Japanese pottery, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Seto, Sig Bergamin