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Artsy clocks that are frozen in time
The newly opened Chloe Decor specializes in provincial Gustavian furniture, named after Sweden’s King Gustav III, who ruled in the late 1700s. The king set a furniture fashion standard that’s a severe simplification of the French Louis XVI style. But Chloe focuses less on pedigree and provenance and more on patina. Opaque whites, blues, grays and yellows shine forth as pale and brilliant as the northern lights in $20 cracked china plates, $200 plant boxes, $1,600 wedding chests and $5,100 trundle beds. Husband-and-wife owners Lindsay and Linda Kennedy -- she’s a native Swede -- find about half of their pieces with the original color unaltered. To restore the painted-over furniture, they use a laborious technique that involves blistering the paint with a heat gun then chiseling it off. Chloe’s concrete and seagrass floors and unadorned, high white walls highlight the Gustavian pieces’ simple and surprisingly modern-looking lines. This clock, one of about 15 in the Chloe collection, is called a Mora, for the town where it was made. Its round rococo belly makes it distinctly Swedish. None of the clocks works, but many come with complete internal mechanisms that can be repaired for $100 to $400 at a shop that offers a one-year guarantee.
Clocks from $2,500 to $7,000 at Chloe Decor, 744 1/2 La Cienega Blvd., (310) 659-7213.
Andrew Myers
Instrument of light
Pat McGANN’s new lamp with a decidedly Eastern tone debuts this month at her fine art and furniture gallery.
Built from Tibetan horns similar to the kind Buddhist monks play to accompany prayers, the lamp is made of metal and has bands of cloud motifs -- an auspicious symbol in Tibetan culture -- hammered in relief. The lamp stands 65 inches tall, including a 3-inch finial that was the horn’s mouthpiece.
Tibetan horn lamp retails for $1,850. Pat McGann Gallery, 746 N. La Cienega Blvd., (310) 657-8708.
Andrew Myers
A god at your very fingertips
Handle dinner party anxiety by putting your faith in table setting -- and the gods.
Sculptor Tom Hellwarth, owner of Stone Soup studio and a veteran of five trips to India, has created the Ganesha napkin ring.
Using the lost-wax casting process, Hellwarth makes a wax model of the napkin ring, then a plaster-like mold he infuses with bronze. After the bronze cools, he breaks the mold, revealing Ganesha -- the Hindu elephant deity of successful endeavors -- ready to be cleaned, polished and brought to table.
Using this same method, Hellwarth also makes custom lamps, mirrors, jewelry and small sculptures, such as the USC School of Film-Television’s award for advancing the media industry.
The brass can also be plated in bronze, copper, silver or gold, at additional cost. Precious or semiprecious stones also can be affixed to the metal.
Set of four napkin rings, $200. Stone Soup, 1730 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, by appointment; (310) 450-4646.
-- Andrew Myers