Found at Salvos in Fyshwick, a Danish-style mid-century modern chest of drawers. It’s got solid teak trim and handles, and an unusual plywood veneer. One of the drawers is stamped inside with “Gainsborough” and the company address in Melbourne. Needs a bit of cleaning up, but it’s still very nice! I put some felt under the TV so it won’t cause any damage. The little vase on the left was a Trash and Treasure find – the lady I bought it from reckoned it was an unmarked Diana factory second (there’s a little bit of the glaze missing). Either way, it’s pretty.

I also got these excellent dishes:

One was from Vinnies in Dickson, and the other from Vinnies in Queanbeyan. Nice weighty ceramic, signed “CT” on the bottom. I’m not really a pottery/ceramics person, so I have no idea who CT could be. If anyone knows, please tell! There are pictures of dishes like these in some of my mid-50s home decorating magazines. They’re in great condition, they look like they’ve sat in somebody’s display unit for the past 40,50, 60? years.

A March 1955 special feature on Canberra. Canberra was a relatively new city, and after WWII, modern architecture sprang up everywhere alongside the original Californian bungalows and (almost Arts and Crafts) cottages. There are many excellent examples, and the best place to read about them is the Canberra House blog. One of these excellent houses is actually up for sale: an Alex Jelinek house at 10 Gawler St, Deakin. It comes with its custom made Krimper furniture! Price is ‘by negotiation’. Canberra prices are pretty outrageous even for ordinary houses, but if I was the kind of person who had a lot of money to spend on a house, I’d be up for this one. Looking at the pictures, I wonder if those are the original bathrooms. The fittings look kind of 1978 and out-of-place.

Anyway, the Home Beautiful feature has sections on public architecture, such as at ANU; private homes, including floor plans and interiors; and local craftspeople making pottery and furniture. I’ve put it all into a PDF for download, it’s 30MB: Home Beautiful Goes to Canberra – March 1955.

in an online catalogue from Shapiro Auctioneers. The description suggests it’s likely to have been designed by Clement Meadmore, a famous Australian-American sculptor, who was designing furniture in the early 1950s. You may have seen his sculpture at the National Gallery:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvk/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

He originally studied industrial design (with a strong interest in aeronautical engineering) at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and you can see that industrial-atomic-spaceage look throughout his designs:

These chairs were made in 1950, and sold for about $5000 in 2008.