An ill wind sweeps across America. I've been shivering for days. Others have been burning-up. How do we survive such a national calamity? There is no easy answer to such a question. For me, one thing is true: I'm praying for a change in the weather.
True, the times are blue. Yet, blue can be so beautiful. Over the next few days, we will be sharing part of our "Collection of Blue"—currently in-stock at the LEO Design on-line shop. Let's make the best of the melancholy.
Shown above, a West German Modernist vase, made in the Sixties or Seventies. It is squat in form, with a "volcano-form" neck rising from its crisp shoulder. And it is glazed in a sublime ultramarine blue glaze—textured and variegated.
Ultramarine paints, in the old days, were extremely costly—more expensive than gold. Lapis lazuli, the mineral, was brought to Venice from the mines in Afghanistan by Italian sea traders. The stones were ground into a fine powder to make the paint, one of the most expensive colors in the palette during the Renaissance era. In 1826, a synthetic ultramarine blue pigment was developed, making the color much less precious.
The name "ultramarine" is the Anglicized form of the Latin word ultramarinus—literally, "beyond the sea." This name alludes to the exotic nature (and far-flung provenance) of the pigment material, brought to Europe at enormous cost.
Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome vase.
More "Feeling Blue" tomorrow and in the days to come.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
To arrange a visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only), please call 917-446-4248.