the man has left the dandy cat back home and embarked on trip to his hometown, to the republic pour les connaisseurs, for a very trivial meeting with state officials. but that is not the point of this story.
past the reasons and motivations of such a trip, this trip also meant reconnecting with bits and pieces from his past, of which today’s point of focus would be his original library from the elder days. among the books, the dictionaries, the newspaper collection ( some of those Scânteia still look mighty good, even after 40 years) he found 2 gems he long thought lost.
the year was 1999. on a lonesome trip from Bucharest north station to some far away Drumul Taberei destination the man had stumbled on to an adhoc antiquities boutique in some courtyard. the funny thing is that you had no way of knowing what was there, safe for a small billboard right next to the entrance – “cheap books”. since he had the time and certainly the spending mood the man stopped and entered, only to emerge a good 25 minutes later with some 35-50 magazines from various ages, all on architecture, from the 20’s to the 70’s. [i bought them by the pound with an equivalency today of 1 pound of magazines = 1/4 the price of a loaf of bread. this wasn't just cheap, it was beyond reality.]
the gems in the pack where two rather shady looking ones he had managed to pull out from under a huge stack of Cutezătorii : The Architectural Review – The Modern English House – special issue December 1939 & Wasmuths Monatshefte Fur Baukunst – Marz 1929. There where also some surprises with these two – a collectible wallpaper design from 1928, a promotional leaflet for drawing boards and other architectural tools of the trade from back in the day for an exhibition in Leipzig , a variety of art deco advertisements from the 30’s, and some 30 to 40 different pure modernist house plans and details ( one of my favorites is the one portraying a polished mahogany toilet seat
).
as i indulged myself into the setting provided by these two, i thought it would only be polite and well mannered to show you these marvels – alas the dSLR has no batteries and my intention of staying with the mood and using photos taken with a ancient HP digital camera went down the drain also when i could not locate it. so am i left but with one option – a small preview ( courtesy of my BB Curve – quality will be doubtful but there is only so much you can do on the hallway ) with the promise of uploading more high quality jpg as soon as i return to Bucharest:
here goes :
The Architectural Review

The Architectural Review

The Architectural Review

The Architectural Review

The Architectural Review - Walter Gropius Design

The Architectural Review

The Architectural Review

The Architectural Review
Wasmuths Monatshefte Fur Baukunst

Wasmuths Monatshefte Fur Baukunst

Wasmuths Monatshefte Fur Baukunst - wallpaper sample

Wasmuths Monatshefte Fur Baukunst

Wasmuths Monatshefte Fur Baukunst

Wasmuths Monatshefte Fur Baukunst
The promotional Leaflet

Leaflet

Leaflet
P.S.- Please excuse the quality – this will be improved as soon as possible! [ however, on the touchy filly side i thing it somehow suits the mood]
The man bids you farewell and goes back to his reading!
(sure would be nice if i could make this sound like a “his masters voice” recording)