Yesterday I did a partial install at West End Avenue. Things are starting to take shape. We put up the two huge mirrors. The two vintage Drexel Villa Escalante case pieces look great, love their heavy brass fixtures. We've got a bit of that Spanish rustic-y thing happening, so what is the perfect coffee table? A vintage Sarreid brass trunk, of course. Sarreid began as a Spanish company in 1967. They originally sourced antiques with Castilian flavor and then began producing their own goods - brass clad furniture became a signature. I have always had an eye out for one of these that didn't cost a couple of months rent, so I was pretty stoked when I found two - one for the client, one for me (mine is pictured above). And I received a bonus bed spread...

I got these "blanket wrap" shipped from an antique store in Florida. My contractor for this job was helping me out yesterday. He unwrapped the trunks and we were temporarily dazed by their awesomeness - I might have been jumping up and down. When we started to clean up the job site. We noticed they took  "blanket wrap" quite literally. They had wrapped one of the trunks in a vintage matelassé bedspread. I didn't have the heart to throw it away. So I carried it home with the trunk and threw it in the wash. I figured I would donate it to the Textile Recycling Center that sets up at the Tompkins Square Farmer's Market every Sunday, but it cleaned up really nicely and happened to fit the bed perfectly.

Matelassé is the french word for quilting or padding. This textile is made utilizing a weaving or stitching technique that creates a pattern that appears quilted. It is meant to mimic the style of hand-stitched quilts made in Marseilles, France. Vintage spreads like this can be popular - 22 bids on this baby. Bates is one mill from the 50s that is still in operation in Maine.

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• Bates
• textile recycling
  
• Sarreid