It’s time this Kitschiest of Obscure Vintage Treasures had a Comeback

A five-foot tall Baroque sea creature? Barbie’s bong? Call it what you will, but you can’t call the “epergne” boring. One-part objet d’art and one-part decorative train wreck, we just can’t seem to tear our eyes away from the thrill of its kitschy frills – and mystery. Year after year of seeing it in antique…

Our Zoom Date with a Time Travelling Egyptologist

Somehow, she transported us to a balmy summer night down the Nile river in the middle of a pandemic. Our latest virtual fireside chat brought us to Dr. Colleen Darnell, a time-travelling 1920s fashionista and groundbreaking Egyptologist, who we’ve long admired here at Messy Nessy Chic. You might compare her to female “Indiana Jones” or…

Van Gogh’s Gun & other Unusual Things up for Auction this Summer

In 1960, a French farmer dug up a Belgian-manufactured Lefaucheux pinfire revolver in a field north of Paris next to the village where Vincent Van Gogh spent his final days. The severely corroded gun is believed to be the one that killed the artist in July of 1890, after he shot himself in the stomach…

A Hidden Island Treasure of Lost Antique Machines

It’s a place you’ll only find if you’re searching for ghosts of the past. I saw it flash past the corner of my eye as we whizzed through the sleepy village streets of Gozo, the Maltese island south of Sicily, before siesta’s quietest hour. I hurled my head out of our battered 4×4 jeep window to catch a fleeting glimpse…

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Shopping for City Relics destined for Demolition

Awesome places get demolished and modernised whether we like it or not. But have you ever wondered where some of their contents end up? In New York City, before the wrecking ball hits, a Harlem-based company called The Demolition Depot makes it their business to go in and salvage the irreplaceable pieces of a building’s…

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The Castaway Collector of Brooklyn

In Boerum Place, Brooklyn, New York lives a man in an apartment with many things. Chong Gon Byun is his name and he arrived in New York City from Korea 25 years ago. Your initial thoughts on Byun might be that he is an obsessive vintage gatherer, a flea market bargain hunter, a hoarder. But a closer…

The Musician Searching for Forgotten Pianos Inside Derelict Wonders

Debussy said music is all about “the silence between the notes.” But for Romain Thiery, it’s about making sure that silence doesn’t grow too loud. Since 2009, the pianist, photographer, and overall urbex Renaissance man has been spotlighting the world’s grandest pianos in their final hour, in equally stunning and crumbling abodes, to give them…

Check out the Most Eccentric AirBnB Pad in NYC

Do you remember that time we discovered the ‘Museum of Every Object you can Probably Think Of‘– that old farming estate in Parma, Italy with an an archive of more than 60,000 everyday artifacts masterfully arranged around the old house? Well I think I just found its stateside equivalent right in the heart of Williamsburg, New York. Welcome to…

The Ghosts of a Parisian Apartment Frozen in Time

It looks like the Fitzgeralds have been round for dinner. But they’ve commandeered the soirée, taken the hostess hostage and disappeared with her into the Parisian underworld. A trail of half-empty champagne glasses have been left on almost every surface, a copious feast abandoned mid-meal, entertainment flyers and calling cards are strewn around on a…

A Miniature Bohemian World

This is the beautifully bohemian (and slightly mad) small world of French artist Ronan-Jim Sevellec. At 80 years of age, his most recent exposition was in 2012 and saw his boxes of tiny artist’s workshops and old antique rooms displayed in various eccentric and romantic locations around Paris. Ronan spent much of his childhood hanging…