That whole Grandmother's Attic aesthetic (as espoused by Anthropologie et al) no longer feels modern to me, but I love this natural wonder with a glimmer of fairytale possibility about it.
Related, from Stanley Abercrombie's A Philosophy of Interior Design:
Ornament's history as charm, totem and message is most easily understood when we consider ornament based on natural forms. Ornament is endlessly commenting on the natural world, sometimes in the form of abstractions from nature, sometimes in literal imitations of cabbage roses, ferns, bunny rabbits or human figures. As Joan Evans maintains, this tendency is not an unsophisticated one. It is not accurate to assume that plant and animal forms represent "the inevitable reflection of a rather primitive civilization in which to use the hallowed phrase, men [and women] lived close to nature. The exact opposite is in fact the case: such naturalistic decoration is produced in courtly civilizations in which men [and women] live in surroundings urban enough for distance to lend enchantment to their view of nature."
How so! ["Bank in the form of a pig (gold)," $150 at Moss]
Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST.
It's charming and appealing in an Alice in Wonderland way, but I couldn't help wishing, when I clicked to Moss's page, when I saw the price ($150), and the button that says, "I'll take it!", that there was also a button that I could click that said "What are you, kidding?"
You need a lot of pennies. I'll have to see what's in my little green piggy bank:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64208676@N00/127960410/
Posted by: carolita | April 13, 2006 at 11:37 AM