Mint The Shop

My very good friend, Lisa, is getting married this weekend (whoop!) so I’m afraid Mint is going to be absent on Monday while I spend some time recovering from what promises to be a fabulous wedding! I also won’t be able to reply to any messages you send today as I’m leaving for the weekend first thing this morning. See you all bright and early on Tuesday!

P.S. Apologies for the terrible deely boppers – I think they’re obligatory at hen’s parties!

P.P.S. The man standing next to Lisa is NOT an exotic dancer in case any of you were wondering – it’s my brother!

RELATED POSTS

• SMASH BANG
• A Bumper Weekend!
• A Long Weekend!

1970s Art Nouveau Spring & Winter prints by Alphone Mucha

Alfons (Alphonse) Maria Mucha is considered by many to be the preeminent artist of the art nouveau movement. Czech born, he moved to Paris in 1887 where he found fame through a poster he designed for a play featuring Sarah Berhardt, the most famous actress in Paris at the time. Mucha’s works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical-looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers. This pair of illustrations printed onto mirror are typical of his work. Looking at the frames, I think that the prints date to the 1970s. They would look fantastic re-framed with a plain whiteborder, or take them out of their frames and hang them as is. They’d look wonderful in a bathroom, or diningroom, but given the right home they could work anywhere really. If I had the wall space, this pair would definitely find a home with me.

Dimensions: Each frame measures 41.5cm x 82cm

Price: R300 each

(more…)

RELATED POSTS

• Win Win Win Win Win Win!

Club Soda Syphon by W. Daly

My boyfriend has recently started collecting soda syphons for his newly acquired art deco drinks cabinet, but being the ever-practical boy that he is, he was determined to get them working. After a few days of hunting he managed to track down a local supplier where he can buy the CO2 cartridges from – and as a result we’ve been enjoying freshly carbonated sode water with our whiskey. Somehow it just tastes that much better than out of a plastic bottle. I tell this (rather long-winded) story as a background to my renewed interest in soda bottles! This version, which was manufactured locally by W Daly for the British Soda Syphon Company, unfortunately can’t be used anymore (much sadness). The design of this bottle means that you’d have to take it to W Daly to be re-gassed; i.e. it doesn’t take cartridges – at least not from what I can see. You also can’t open the bottle up which means that I can’t get the last drops of water out of the bottle. This glass is slightly ‘sick’ in places, but it is an early art deco piece so there’s likely to be some wear with something of this age. But despite all the negatives, it’s still an incredibly beautiful object, and a fairly collectible one. I’ve seen this identical bottle for sale in an antique shop for R1500 (crazy!).

Dimensions: 32cm tall x 10cm in diameter

Price: R240

(more…)

RELATED POSTS

None Found

Collection of kitchenalia

I’m not sure how much more effective these vintage flour sieves are compared to a plain old run-of-the mill sieve, but they’re definitely much, much cooler! Plus this particular sieve doubles as a measuring cup – so handy! The egg beater is your standard hand-held beater, but it is Japanese so is probably a lot better made than most of the versions you can buy locally today. The third item is a bit of a guess – I think it’s for slicing potatoes, but I suppose you could use it for other hard fruit and veggies as well.  Whatever you use it for, it’s always nice to have quirky bits of kitchenalia lying around!

Dimensions: Flour sieve – 14cm tall x 11cm in diameter; Egg beater – 27cm long; Potato slicer – 19cm long x 10cm wide

Price: Flour sieve – R120; Egg beater – R70 ; Potato slicer – R45

(more…)

RELATED POSTS

• SMASH BANG
• A Bumper Weekend!
• A Long Weekend!

Original 1980s Rolodex

If someone had told me I was going to buy a Rolodex, I really wouldn’t have believed them, but that was before I knew how cool they looked! I grew up watching Hollywood blockbusters where successful businessman asked their demure secretaries to find so-and-sos number in the Rolodex, but until I stumbled acros this one I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen one in real life before – or perhaps the versions I’ve seen haven’t been quite as cool as this one. The first Rolodex came to the market in 1954 and the name continues today. I think that this particular model dates to the late 1980s. It has 1100 blank cards divided alphabetically, for you to type (or write) your names and addresses. I know something like this may seem defunct now that we carry our telephone directories with us wherever we go in the form of mobiles, but I think that there’s a strong argument for writing numbers down: I started keeping a phone book a few years back after losing my cell phone and along with it all my numbers – it’s such a mission to track down all the numbers you need, so it makes sense to have a hard copy of them somewhere. And practicalities aside this is a really, really cool looking object to display on your desk!

Dimensions: 20cm tall x 18cm wide

Price: R170

(more…)

RELATED POSTS

• Ladies, all the ladies, louder now
• Festive Frenzy
• New Times for Mint!