ACK. This house is Gorgeous beyond belief. Rest assured, I have provided links to all of Chuck’s great slide shows, below. Why is this house and its kitchen so famous? Wikipedia says:

John deKoven Hill and [Frank Llloyd] Wright designed a number of buildings together where Hill acted as Chief Architect.Hill was the chief architect and designer for the echt-Wrightian J. Ralph and Patricia Corbett House on 2501 Grandin Road in Cincinnati, Ohio. The 2501 Grandin Road house was House Beautiful’s 1960 Pace Setter and is considered the culmination of Frank Lloyd Wright and John deKoven Hill’s collaborative designs. Many features first seen in houses like Fallingwater and Taliesin are incorporated into the 2501 Grandin Road house.

It is unbelievable: The beautiful modern homes Everywhere across America!

I follow Formica on Facebook, and based on a tip they posted (thanks!) yesterday, I talked to Chuck Lohre on the phone right away. He said that he bought the kitchen out of total modernist love, and had hoped to use it in an upcoming. That project is not going ahead, so now it working to find a buyer. He is currently in talks with the local art museum, which has shown interest. If that doesn’t work out, he is planning to auction the kitchen in March. I suggested he talk to the Museum of Modern Art — remember their terrific modern kitchen exhibit last year? I bet they would love to have it, but Chuck said that first, he is working to keep it in Cincinnati.

Chuck gave me permission to feature a few photos that he took to chronicle the salvage operation. Oh my, the beauteousness. This definitely seems to have been a high-end, all-the-bells-and-whistles 1960 kitchen. Luv.

Chuck also explains that all of the Formica used in the kitchen was custom designed just for it, and apparently the laminate was ever not sold retail. The cabinets are laminated wood — the peninsula would double-decker shelves is covered in laminate, etc. Stay tuned, I am doing more research – and I also have reached out to Formica to see if they can provide any original photography of the kitchen.  Thank you, Chuck, you are a hero. Thanks, too, to the new owners; even though they did not want to keep the original kitchen, they were kind to let Chuck salvage it.

Following are some important links for more information:

• Chuck Lohre’s Green Cincinnati blog’s story about the preview tonight.
• Chuck’s slide show of the demo of the kitchen.
• Chuck’s slide show of the exterior of the home.
• Good article by Cincinnati City Beat online magazine about the kitchen and Chuck’s story.
• Wikipedia bio of John DeKoven Hill.

While on the subject of Cincinnati, Retro Renovation also is a sponsor of the 20th Century Cincinnati vintage art, furnishings and fashion show coming up in two weeks — Feb. 25-26. Go! And tell them you heard about it here

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In the comment on my first story, Steve piped up that he had a complete set, so I chased him down. Here’s his story:

Probably 12 years or so ago I saw the “Think” egghead at an antiques show in Des Moines. It was on a high shelf in seller’s booth in the corne of this big auditorium. I was halfway across the room when I spotting it out of the corner of my eye.

The seller wanted $200 for it as I remember. That was a lot of money for me at the time. I came close to buying but talked myself out of it. I told my girlfriend at the time about it and as a surprise she tracked down the seller and gave me the egghead as a gift.

It was several years before I had any idea of the egghead’s cool origins. The eggheads have a signature on the inside rim, but it’s kind scrawled and hard to read. I didn’t know if it was Tanck or Tarck or Tasck or what. After owning the ”Think” head for quite a while, I wanted to know more about it so I started doing searches on ebay and other web sources. Through trial and error I discovered “Think” was an egghead designed by Largardo Tackett, a contemporary of the Eames’, and that it was just one of several. I also learned that they were sold in the back of men’s magazine and marketed as stash containers for condoms and stuff.

I’m not into the Rat Pack or anything, but the eggheads’ cool, swinging 60s thing was kind of irresistible. I’m also a fan of poster art (I have a collection of film posters from 70s and 80s) and graphic design and really like the simple Saul Steinberg-esque graphics of the eggheads. (I actually thought that Steinberg may have had some connection to them.) So I started buying eggheads one by one as they came on ebay. Took me a few years.

I can’t remember what I paid for each, but most likely between $50 and $200. The “Sex” egghead was the most elusive. I rarely see the “Think” head up for sale. Only two in my set have the corks in the bottom. The “Et tu Brute” version has a cork on the right side of the head. I think I have the whole collection. I’ve never seen any other designs, though I think some come in two different heights. I sometimes check on ebay just to see if any are listed and what people are paying for them. I think I have a nice collection with some real value, but I can’t see parting with them anytime soon.

Thank you, Steve. Seems like, yes, you have a collection wisely bought, which continues to increase in value, as I now see these going for $350 or more on ebay. As they say: Sex Sells.

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Eva Zeisel, an iconic designer whose ceramic dinnerware and giftware was part of transforming design in midcentury America, died on Dec. 30, 2011. What an amazing woman. She lived to just past 105 — and worked throughout.  I have been spending time immersing myself in reading about her life and designs, and the combination of joy + intelligence shines through. On this lengthy tribute, I have gathered all the best media — videos, articles, books — as well as Eva Zeisel products still available today — onto this one page.

One of my key takeaways from my research: Eva Zeisel refused to be held hostage by any philosophical design “movements”. In fact, she rejected the square lines and geometrical tyranny of the midcentury modernists — saying instead that designers should ignore any so-called common wisdom, and do the work that speak to their hearts. Or moreover: To their hands, given that she was a potter. She also said she loved rounded lines — the “S curve” — because she herself was a little bit… chubby. What a lovely woman. What a pip!

Read on for my comprehensive online guide to the life, work and products still available today of Eva Zeisel.

To start, from the New York Times’ obituary:

Ms. Zeisel (pronounced ZY-sel), along with designers like Mary and Russel Wright and Charles and Ray Eames, brought the clean, casual shapes of modernist design into middle-class American homes with furnishings that encouraged a postwar desire for fresh, less formal styles of living.

“Museum,” the porcelain table service that brought Ms. Zeisel national notice, was commissioned by its manufacturer, Castleton China, in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which introduced it in an exhibition in 1946, its first show devoted to a female designer.

Ms. Zeisel’s work, which ultimately spanned nine decades, was at the heart of what the museum promoted as “good design”: domestic objects that were beautiful as well as useful and whose beauty lent pleasure to daily life.

From the archives of Eva Zeisel Originals -- reproductions in solid black and white still available today

Videos

Above: A TERRIFIC video of Eva speaking at a TED conference a few years ago. A quote:

The playful search for beauty was man’s first activity… all useful qualities and all material qualities were developed from the playful search for beauty… The word playful is a necessary aspect of our work, we have to make, produce lovely things throughout all of life.. and this for me is now 75 years….

… I used my work to fuel my curiosity…

Above: In 2002, filmaker Jyll Johnstone made what looks to be a comprehensive documentary about Zeisel’s life: Throwing Curves — Eva Zeisel. Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, it’s an hour long. Here’s a description… and you can buy it here.

… People like us were never poor, we just had no money…

Above: Jeremy Bales did a shorter, 5-minute video, Eva Zeisel – Distinguished by Design, in 2008. If you watch just one video right away — watch this one.

…I’m better than before because i have so much experience… And I’m going to live a long time and still design on and on. Designing is pleasure for me.”

Above: She worked on a ceramic tile line with Trikeenan — the video above is lovely.

Eva Zeisel Forum

The Eva Zeisel Forum is an amazing treasure trove of information about Zeisel’s life and work. Their site includes an extensive links page, which I will not try to replicate, but which a serious Zeisel scholar or collector should be sure to consult. They also have what looks to be a definitive chronology / timeline of her live and work — nicely done!

More good stories about Eva Zeisel

• Eva’s grandson Adam runs the company that sells a number of Eva’s designs. Their site — Eva Zeisel Originals — also has a good links page. And, you can read more about Eva and see more photos on the site.
• A short but excellent interview with the Wall Street Journal in July 2011, after Leucos USA announced a new line of lighting based on Zeisel’s design (it does not appear that the lighting is available yet):

Says Eva: ”In general, the inspiration for my work has been the human body—belly buttons, which I used quite often—nature and the Hungarian folk art of my youth… Modernism, rebelling against the ornament of the 19th century, limited the vocabulary of the designer. Modernism emphasized straight lines, eliminating the expressive S curve.” -

• Similarly, the LA Times mentions in its obituary:

In 2005, then-98-year-old Zeisel chuckled as she told a National Public Radio interviewer that she gravitated to curves “probably because I consist myself of curves instead of straight lines, meaning I’m a little bit fat.”

• And I quite like this, from Jed Perl, on Orange Chicken (a retailer)’s website:

Part of what has always been so appealing about Zeisel’s work is her iconoclastic view of what modern design-and, indeed, modern life-is all about. She celebrates the voluptuous and fantastical. She gives us a winking, twinkling, seductive modernity. She’s not afraid of our half-submerged rococo or baroque impulses. She believes that even the form that follows the function can dance a little gavotte.”

• Story on Forbes: The Life of Eva Zeisel and the Absurdity of Other People’s Rules. Right on, sister!
• John Foster of The Design Observer writes about visiting Zeisel in mid-2011, includes unique photos taken at her home.
• Royal Stafford, which manufactures her Century design today, has a good timeline.

Obituaries

• The New York Times — quoted above — the NYT also provides a pretty definitive writeup.
• The Los Angeles Times – also a nice long story:

All my work is mother-and-child,” Zeisel once said. Often critical of Modernism despite being one of its towering figures, the designer said she simply tried to recapture the “magic language of things.” And: ”By her own estimation, Zeisel had designed 100,000 pieces of tableware, in styles as diverse as Bauhaus, Russian Art Nouveau and her best-known approach, organic modern.”

• The Washington Post – “… She resisted being characterized as an artist. ‘Art has more ego to it than what I do,’ she once told the New Yorker.”

Eva Zeisel products still manufactured for sale today

• Crate and Barrel’s Eva Zeisel “Century” dinnerware was originally designed in 1952, C&B says. The New York Times said it is based on one of her vintage Hallcraft designs. $268 for a 20-piece set.

• Eva Zeisel Originals — run by her grandson Adam — sells a variety of furniture and collectibles, including the coffee table above.

If you just want “a little something”, these salt and pepper shakers — also from Eva Zeisel Originals — are just lovely.

• Klein Reid collaborated with Zeisel and sells a number of beautiful pieces — like the sensuous 11-piece centerpiece, above — manufactured today.

• Orange Chicken also began a collaboration with with Zeisel in 1998, and offers a unique selection — including awesome looking room dividers.

• The Rug Company sells three Eva Zeisel designs. They asked her a few questions. I love this:

The Rug Company: What does the word quality mean to you?
Eva Zeisel: Quality means having a purpose forever.

• Unica Home offers a variety of products, including these pretty goblets made by Nambe.

Books

I ordered and read the book Eva Zeisel on Design
– by the great lady herself. I LOVED IT.

Eva Zeisel’s Soviet Prison Memoir also is coming soon. There is an excerpt available here and the complete ebook Eva Zeisel: A Soviet Prison Memoir  will be coming soon.

In conclusion: Eva Zeisel: A life, well lived. <3

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