Do you ever feel like exiting the rat race? Fleeing the city? Joining a nice, simple, cloistered monastery? Perhaps that fleeting feeling is best contemplated during less-stressful moments. In the meantime, a touch of "Rectory Chic" might give you just enough of a momentary retreat to get you through the rest of the day. Made in the Thirties by Bradley & Hubbard (Meriden, Connecticut, 1852-1940), these heavy, crisply-cast iron bookends quote Jesus as related in the Gospel of Saint John. John, by the way, spent a bit of time cloistered on (rather, banished to) the Greek island of Patmos—where he lived in a cave and wrote The Book of Revelation. The bookend's mate bears a quote by Blessed John Henry Newman, the English poet and priest who converted to Roman Catholicism. He was ordained a priest, a cardinal and has been beatified (making him one step away from canonization as a saint). He was a prolific theological thinker and writer—and a man who challenged British anti-Catholicism. For those so-inclined, they would make a wonderful and welcome gift. Please click on the photo to learn more about them.
LEO Design's Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed. While we contemplate our next shop location, please visit our on-line store which continues to operate (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
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