Of course it is now temporarily closed but when Italy re-opens if you get to Milan I highly recommend a visit to the beautiful Casa Museo Boschi / Di Stefano which I was fortunate to get to a few weeks ago just as the proverbial was starting to hit the fan there with the Coronavirus. The museum is located in an apartment inside a 1930's apartment building and has approx 300 20th century works by Italian artists. It's well off the usual tourist track and entry is free.

http://www.fondazioneboschidistefano.it/ws/en/

Some photos of the building, apartment and artworks....

 

Fantastic. Excellent in every way.

 

that’s very cool. I’m not familiar at all with Italian designers from that time period except Gio Ponti who was more famous at a later time. Alfonso Iannelli was a famous Italian sculptor who did a lot of WPA and stylized work but he spent almost all his life in the US. He is well known here for his work with Frank Lloyd Wright and his sculptures for the Worlds Fair in Chicago

 

Got this Stowa around 1 year ago on the fleabay

 

Just picked up a tiny deco ladies dial and movement. I’m hoping it’s RWC for Rolex Watch Co. but won’t know for sure until it arrives. I guess whatever it was it may have had a precious metal case that was melted down. Sad as I think the dial is lovely.

 

A mouth-watering collection of Cartier clocks are coming up at Christie’s next month.

https://www.christies.com/zmags?ZmagsPublishID=72af99ec

 

Looking forward to visiting that beautiful museum in Milan some day sooner than later.

For now, I am enjoying the reopening of my favorite bookstore in this 1930s building, which also houses the Ecole Speciale des Travaux Publics. Im case you wondered about the meaning of the beautiful logo below.

 

That is some glorious masonry. I always appreciate when a mason has done a good job on using a discreet colour grouting to make the bands of bricks seem near seamless in the horisontal direction and highlighting the lines with a contrasting colour grout between the layers. A beautiful example of how the building material itself becomes the decoration rather than adorning the facade with excessive make-up.

 

That is a great building and with appealing masonry work Syrte. Thanks for posting that one.

I could enjoy poking around there. I love bookstores. Even in nations where English is not a primary language. There is always something interesting to be found.

 

Indeed this one has lovely writing materials, funky gadgets and even scented candles from Grasse in Provence, which is the historical center of French fragrances. They also have office supplies and sell on line, so if anyone here from France is reading this page I will give them an unsolicited plug — it’s Librairie Eyrolles (in case you weren’t looking at the sign on the facade). I know I’m going to sound like a hippie but we need to save the bookstores from Amazon!

 

Thanks for your eloquent description, I knew it felt exceptionally “streamlined” but didn’t realize why.
Also the horizontal joints are very recessed which emphasizes them because they’re in the shadows. So there’s also relief and light playing into it.
Edit/ add: Guess that’s also an architectural equivalent of the “step”.

 

I'll admit to having a slight obsession over brickwork bonding and grouting types and how it is utilised in a building. It can really make or break the look of a facade and to some extent it is a dying art, sadly.

 

Minimalist- yes, Art deco ?

 

Could be. Beautiful in any event.

 

no

 

I would say Bauhaus influenced.

 

It's difficult to label designs such as this one with being influenced with one particular school of style/design as most modern (1950s and forward) designs carry traces of a several different styles, where most of the design language is overlapping anyways.

I like the term "modern" or "modernist", which doesn't contain any streamlining/art deco/Bauhaus connotations specific to that school.

There are some Bauhaus inspiration about those numerals on the Alpina, but the overall design is a bit too fussy, breaking with an overlying ideal of the school, making it contradict itself. Had the seconds track been more stark and the hands simpler, I could well see it as a complete Bauhaus design.

Glorious looking watch, anyway

What vintage is it @Alpha?

 

The hands are indeed incongruous: leaf minute hand, plume hour hand, baton indices...

 

circa 1940