Art Deco collector combines passion with preservation

Collector John Thomas is crazy about all things Art Deco. How crazy? So crazy that he bought three Art Deco mantelpieces — one marble, one bird’s eye maple and one birch — and brass railings from the old Argyle Hotel (now the Sunset Tower Hotel on the Sunset Strip) even though his two-bedroom condo in Long Beach has neither a fireplace nor a staircase.

“The running joke is that the availability of Art Deco is drying up because I’ve got it all,” Thomas says with a grin. “People keep telling me I should go on ‘Antiques Roadshow,’ but I have so much stuff that they’d need to come here.”

FOR THE RECORD:
Art Deco: A photo caption accompanying a Sept. 4 Home article about Art Deco collector John Thomas described the flooring of his Long Beach condominium foyer as resembling wood parquet. It doesn’t resemble wood parquet; further, it is made of ceramic tile. —

Thomas, a clean-cut, mild-mannered Fullerton native, manages the fire and building permit process for new construction in Rancho Cucamonga. He got hooked on Art Deco in 2002 while browsing at the Melrose Trading Post at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. When he saw a plate made for the Paris Exposition of 1925, he was smitten by its graceful fountain and flower motif.

“I loved the colors and the design,” says Thomas, who later became fascinated by the Art Deco movement’s “modern” influence on everything from architecture to industrial design to fashion to film. “The period from 1925 to 1940 really appeals to me,” he says. “Designers embraced Art Deco as an opportunity to change so many things.”

In the beginning, Thomas concentrated on collecting small objects: clocks, ashtrays, glassware, cocktail shakers and anything with a leaping gazelle, the emblem of the Paris expo, on it. “I’m a working-class guy,” he says. “I buy what I can afford.”

He soon graduated to sleek ceramics, curio cabinets and mantels, then lighting, radios and telephones, always hunting for functioning pieces or ones that he can restore or repair, one way he keeps his things affordable. “I like for something to be aged and slightly used because then it tells a story,” he says.

Finally, he set his sights on bigger quarry, such as sofas (he has two), armchairs (four pairs, including a set from the Queen Mary), armoires (three), dressers (two) and vanities (two). His condo is so crammed that first-time visitors often remark that it looks more like a museum than someone’s home, to which Thomas, 48, has a quick, good-natured comeback: “Yeah, and I’m the chief relic!”

Five years ago, Thomas decided the 1970s-era flat he shares with his partner, photographer Christopher Launi, wasn’t doing his collectibles justice. So he remodeled it into a showcase with period flair. The updates, which are more like flashbacks, include floor tile resembling wood parquet, ornate ceiling lights, pedestal sinks in the bathrooms and Bakelite door handles and drawer pulls in the kitchen.

To feed his habit, Thomas frequents swap meets and antique stores. Vacations are planned around his passion too. Before he flies anywhere, he researches Art Deco landmarks in that city and then, upon arriving, scours the telephone book for antique shops. Thomas never buys anything online. “I’ve got to know it’s original and what condition it’s in,” he says.

After eight years, Thomas has amassed about 4,000 objects, from ephemera such as matchbooks, valued at $50 to $100 each, to a Norman Bel Geddes skyscraper-shaped clock that might fetch $4,000 and a Walter Teague blue-glass sleigh-shaped radio that could be worth up to $10,000. In between are things such as a streamline Electrolux canister vacuum cleaner, a Remington “portable” typewriter and a Hotpoint skyscraper toaster. Oh, and he’s got a 1930s O’Keefe and Merritt gas stove in storage.

Thomas, president of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, has become such an Art Deco authority that he launched his own design consulting company, Art Deco Dimensions, in 2005. In addition to advising on the restoration of the Queen Mary, he fields requests for informal appraisals and remodeling recommendations from as far away as New York and gives lectures to collectors, antique dealers and architectural organizations. In 2006, he and Launi co-wrote “Long Beach Art Deco” (Arcadia Publishing) with Suzanne Tarbell Cooper to document the city’s Art Deco landmarks. Thomas helped write a second book, “RMS Queen Mary,” about the luxury ocean liner, which is hosting the sixth annual Queen Mary Art Deco Festival this weekend.

For a guy focused so intently on the past, Thomas has begun pondering the future. “Sometime before the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Paris exposition, I’d like my collection to go to a Southland gallery dedicated to the form and function of the Art Deco movement. Maybe it would inspire others to do the same and result in a museum,” he says. “I want the message and the story of Art Deco to continue.”

Maybe he’s not so crazy after all.

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