1. A last look at an almost-forgotten Parisian apartment before it became a Museum Café at the Musée Bourdelle in Paris
Antoine Bourdelle’s daughter Rhodia proved herself a dedicated guardian to her sculptor father’s artistic heritage, as the apartment she made of his studio above the Musée Bourdelle in Paris. In 1993, Word of Interiors paid a visit and photographed it before it changed hands and eventually became the musem’s Modernist café.
“When we arrived at the apartment, Rhodia had just come back from a buying spree on the Avenue Montaigne carrying a large shopping bag from Dior. When we asked her how she saw the future of the Musée Bourdelle, she revealed that she had plans for a musée-jardin in her country house in Egreville, where she would exhibit her father’s sculpture, the furniture of her late husband and some of her own paintings. What she could not have envisioned was how, 20 years after her death, her apartment would be emptied of its contents and converted into a ‘café-restaurant’ named Le Rhodia – a place for museum visitors to stretch their legs and enjoy a cup of coffee or a meal. What a pity we will never know what she might have said about it.”
Full article found World of Interiors.
2. Portrait of a Venetian Palazzo Awaiting Rescue
A rediscovered 13th-century Venetian palazzo with a strange elegance. It deserves to be rescued and restored – an ambitious project for talented British designers, Angus and Charlotte Buchanan.
Full photostory found on Cabana Magazine.
3. The Violin. “A stack of hundred-year-old photos lead to the discovery of a family treasure hiding in plain sight.”
Read the full story here.
4. Engineers discover a 132-Year-Old Message in a Bottle in a Scottish Lighthouse
Watch the engineer find & open the bottle here on The New York Times.
5. Tapestries in the basement of a Hospital for Nervous and Psychologically Ill people, created by a patient
Marian Henel (1926-1993) created his psychedelic tapestries in the basement of the Hospital for Nervous and Psychologically Ill people in Branice, of which he was a patient. Founded by Bishop J M. Nathan and built in 1929-32, the Psychiatric Institution in Branice was the only institution of its kind in Central Europe before the war. Rejected by his mother, after experiencing prison Marian Henel ended up in an institution in Branice, where he spent most of his life. Paradoxically, it was here for the first time that he felt peace and happiness. As part of the therapy, the hospital staff allowed patients to take part in numerous artistic workshops. Initially Henel weaved bathroom carpets, but soon the caretakers saw his talent and allowed him to move to a weaving workshop arranged in the basement. This place became a sanctuary for Henel, where he would create these large orgiastic tapestries.
Found on Anonymous Works.
6. Bella Freud (Sigmund Freud’s great-granddaughter) analysing Kate Moss & friends on her couch
7. The Real Wizard of Oz
Washington Harrison Donaldson was the real-life inspiration for the titular Wizard of Oz. He was a circus magician, gymnast, and ventriloquist who disappeared in a hot air balloon never to be seen again.
Find his Wikipedia page here.
8. What Victorian People Sounded Like: Hear Recordings of Florence Nightingale & Queen Victoria Herself
Found on Open Culture.
9. Just a Ford Mustang on top of the Empire State Building
In 1965, Ford disassembled a Mustang and transported it in four parts to the top of the Empire State Building for publicity. The car was reassembled on the building’s observation deck, showcasing Ford’s knack for innovative marketing.
Read more about it here.
10. Claude Lalanne’s gilt bronze banister in the home of designer Mariuccia Mandelli, Milan, 1981
Found on the SSS Edit.
11. A moment’s appreciation for Hemingway’s home bathroom, Key West FL, designed by Pauline Pfeiffer (his second wife) in 1931
Photos found on Pinterest.
12. Just a reminder, you can start anything, anywhere. The rules are fewer and fewer rules.
13. Words of Wisdom from Anthony Bourdain
“Have dinner tonight at a local restaurant. Order the cream sauce. Have a cold beer at 4pm in a nearly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been before. Listen to someone who, at first glance, seems like you have nothing in common.
Try the rare steak. Savor an oyster. Order a negroni. Order two. Open yourself up to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you — but toast them anyway.
Eat slowly. Tip your server well. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. And enjoy every second of it.”
— Anthony Bourdain
