Sunday, August 22, 2010

Louis Shanks


I recently had the chance to visit the Austin location of Louis Shanks furniture store...



I could show you scads of photos of their well made, high end furniture, and believe me, there is plenty of it! But what caught my eye was the repeated used of paper to decorate....


Books folded and displayed on desks and in secretaries......


Books bundled together with twine, their spines removed exposing the glues and gauze bindings...


Other books with black and white illustrations, folded to make an abstract pattern of design....




...and then there were the scrolls.....



.....bundled paper scrolls tied with twine and placed in everything!


....filling nooks......



and crannies in secretaries......


pages with tinted edges rolled and placed in glass sconces......



Since 1945, Louis Shanks has offered quality and inspiration to the furniture market. The Anderson Lane store I visited is the corporate headquarters for the Austin, Houston and San Antonio based stores. This three story store is over 100,000 square feet and carries lines such as Henredon, Lexington, Stickley,Bernhardt and Sligh.




So, don't forget the details....people notice it all when visiting your home!

9 comments:

Ann said...

Hi Theresa,

Check out this guy's website; http://bibliopath.org/index.php

Wish I was that creative!

-Ann

Karena said...

Theresa, it is all in the fine details, fabulous!!

Karena
Art by Karena

Regina at Fauxology said...

How wonderful and creative! I think I'm borrowing the scroll detail for my home...

patrickgracewood said...

Destroying books still makes me slightly queasy, but I know that it's because so many books are now useless, off to recycling. Those displays are very imaginative. Who knows they might seduce one or two folks to investigate the art of book binding....
What I refuse to think clever are the displays that file books by their color instead of by content! Maddening.

Theresa Cheek said...

Patrick,
Yes, I had to think about this before publishing! It seems they used what I call"books by the pound",,,,books that are sold by the pound and not really used for much....there are a lot of those out there....that is the only way I could condone doing this!

Jennifer Carrasco said...

Theresa, I'll bet there is a bookbinding (or in this case, unbinding) artist behind these intriguing displays. I'm stating the obvious, but these set ups are so conceptual and lovely. The great thing is that not everyone will pick up on them....so subtle and perfectly in tune with all the grand traditional furniture.
Some day, my friend, when you come to visit Seattle, I will take you out to the handmade book department at the UW library. I haven't been for ages, and I love it....books that open in 40 directions, books with endless pages, dragon mouths that flap open into stories.....a visual Jorges Luis Borges.

Theresa Cheek said...

Jennifer! You leave me speechless! I would love to visit you AND the UW library...it will happen one day!

ceecee said...

Beautiful organic shapes - especially the ones in the nook. I'm with you and Patrick on the destruction of books, but this would be a way to recycle books that have been damaged and would otherwise be thrown away. Interesting, as always!

Catherine

French-Kissed said...

In the right hands, one cast aside art form gets an extended life by being shaped into yet another. Great post.

~jermaine

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