My Vintage Modern Love

December 2015, By Nicole Langelier

When I walk into a vintage modern house, furniture shop, gallery etc. my heart starts pounding and I get short of breath with excitement. I once jumped out of a still moving car to get my paws on an early original Eames RAR chair at a roadside thrift shop in New Mexico. This love of modern design is so deep inside of me it’s practically part of my DNA. 

I may have a double degree in furniture and interior design, but my greatest and most pleasurable education came when I worked at Lin-Weinberg gallery in NYC during my under graduate studies at Parsons School of Design. Located on a prime corner in SOHO, Lin-Weinberg was one of NY’s premier vintage furniture design galleries in the 90’s. Larry Weinberg and Andy Lin were way ahead on the game when it came to showcasing unique design objects from the 40’s through to the 70’s. They were hungry for knowledge and in a time that was virtually pre internet, they would hungrily scour their voluminous library of vintage design magazines like ‘Interior Design’ and ‘Domus’ to name, identify and catalogue all of the pieces they would buy on a (educated) hunch.

Maybe it was Larry that turned me into a lover of Flea markets. He use to get up before the crack of dawn and go the 24th street market in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood armed with a flashlight and a wad of cash. He would look under tables and in the dealers half unpacked vans to try and snatch up a bargain before anyone else did. I remember his energy when he would come back to the gallery having found another amazing score – a rare Ico Parisi arm chair, a Stig Lindberg vase, a Tapio Wirkkala leaf plate. His energy, love and knowledge of great vintage design was truly infectious.

Now when I go to a flea market – especially in Europe, I look like a mad woman who has had far too much coffee. I simply cannot control my excitement – the joy and possibility of discovery, the thrill of the hunt, the satisfying win. As I write this I can feel the emotion bubbling up inside of me. As I write this I am also admiring my prized possession – my 1963 Gio Ponti for Bonicina bamboo armchair (in perfect original condition) that I got a few years back at a consignment shop in Milan.

What I took from those years at Lin-Weinberg and from Larry in particular was so much more than a salary. I was given knowledge, passion and an eye that never fails me. Not to mention expert bargaining skills. You taught me well ‘Grasshopper’. You gave me a love that has never failed me – that will never let me down. You gave me a love that is ever growing – you gave me a very Modern Love.

So, do yourself a favour and go visit Larry at the New York Design Center, 200 Lexington Avenue Suite 407, now just ‘Weinberg Modern’. Make sure to give him a hug for me.