Incollect Magazine - Issue 2

Issue 2 54 www.incollect.com A work from the Chan Series, the “Festival” coffee table depicts a richly detailed Asian village scene, populated with characters in virtually every aspect of daily life — shopping, working and conversing, along with buildings, trees, streets and pathways, evoking the lively preparations leading up to a festival. The work is executed in acid-etched, enameled and patinated bronze and pewter. Signed “Philip Kelvin LaVerne,” (see detail below) and dates circa 1970. Offered by Milord Antiquités, available through Incollect. Photo courtesy Milord Antiquités. years to finish. Designs were mostly made to order, or you could purchase samples from their 57th Street showroom off the floor, where the LaVernes kept a wall of letters from grateful clients thanking them for their artistry and extolling the virtues and beauty of a design. They maintained a roster of celebrity clients (including Aristotle Onassis) at home and abroad and demand exceeded supply constantly. The “underground” aging of the metals remains perhaps the most idiosyncratic and signature aspect of the LaVernes’ process of making furniture. The complexity of the process is legendary and involved binding bronze or brass and pewter and cutting or acid etching designs into the sheet metal, then burying in a special soil laced with chemicals to accelerate and enhance oxidation to form a rich and unique patina. After the aging process, the metal was cleaned, polished, and then usually enamel painted. The LaVernes were true intellectuals and sought inspiration for their designs from the study of western and eastern art, literature and music. Mythology was an important source of ideas as well. They made work in series, named for the source material of the decorative schemes used to embellish the exterior metal — the Historical