We're Obsessed: Badass Basalt
Truth time. The estate sale/thrifting/general vintage hunting as of late has been pretty dismal. Who knows why? The market's saturated... vintage-loving hipsters have taken over the planet... your great-grandmother finally decided to start selling on Craigslist... as with most fundamentally depressing topics, there are a million reasons for this and there are none. But every once in a while a single find can restore your faith in the whole effort.
I wish I could say I found this basalt Wedgewood vase at the ever-giving, ever-bountiful Brown Elephant I frequent oh just about every weekend, but no - this was found by Andrew during a South Side thrifting trip which really is no surprise since he's really good at spotting diamonds amongst all of the heaping mounds of crap, and had it been at Brown Elephant they would've pasted a big sign on it saying that it wasn't for sale until they'd finished researching it, and then when they did finally finish researching it, it would've been marked at a price higher than retail. But I digress...
So of course you're wondering, how much did it cost crazy rambling STUDY blogger person? Is it gauche to say that he only paid $3.50 for it?
Yes, it is gauche, but it's also really frigging amazing.
We tried researching this bad boy for a good week to no avail. Mostly when we searched for "wedgewood basalt vase" or "basalt jar" we came up with this:
via Live Auctioneers
I should also mention I really hope that no one ever put their cat's ashes in this thing.
Finally, last night we hit the google image search jackpot. Apparently Wedgewood did a line in the early sixties called Design 63 with pottery designer Robert Minkin that attempted to show the world that Wedgewood could do more than make fussy urns.
Design 63 collection via Live Auctioneers
Design 63 vase via Ruby Lane
We cannot get over how beautiful and completely fresh-looking the Design 63 line is - it truly could've been conceived of yesterday - but there's also something vaguely egyptian about it (again with the canopic jar references). It's that perfect mix of 60s Brutalism by way of Wedgewood refinement. We want nothing more than to collect a whole bunch more and then have you over for a dinner party while we all sip prosecco out of DWR's Midas Glassware.
Do you keep your dead cat in there?
The only thing we're left wondering is if this vase originally had a lid - in which case it'd be more of a jar - but we're guessing it didn't. Either way, it's perfect and we're keeping it... unless you want to buy it and then we could probably be convinced with a sawbuck and dinner/drinks. Maybe dancing too. We're pretty easy that way.
