If you missed out on the Ball Chair by Finn Stone last year – or didn’t like the initial colours – you might want to check out the latest versions in silver and gold.
The space age chair apparently takes influence from the work of Verner Panton and is good to use both indoors and outdoors, thanks to a construction of recycled ABS (virtually indestructible polypropylene) and a high quality glossy varnish that is highly UV-resistant and environment-friendly.
It retails for £145.
Modernist design wasn’t just for mainland Europe – Britain had its own cutting-edge objects in the 20s and 30s too, with the Bestlite lamp being the most famous. And not only a lamp – you can now pick up that same design for your ceiling with the Bestlite BL9 pendant light.
The Bestlite was described as ‘the first Bauhaus manifestation in Great Britain’ when it was introduced in 1930, the work of Robert Dudley Best. And that stylish simplicity can still catch the eye almost 80 years later, mixing stainless steel and aluminium in a choice of matt black, matt off white and glossy black, with the shade sized around 21cm in diameter.
If you want one, it retails for £158.99.
Find out more at the Panik Design website
This ashtray belongs to Arne Jacobsen’s Cylinda Line, a group of products based on a simple cylindrical form rumoured to have been drawn on the back of napkin.
Created in 1967, it is still in production for Stelton over 40 years later and whilst smoking has since fallen out of fashion, this ashtray still looks pretty good. Its revolving function allows you to hide unsightly ash from view. It is made from matt polished stainless steel.
It is available to buy from TwentyTwentyOne for £39.
Isamu Noguchi is no stranger to the pages of Retro To Go, but he is a stranger to UK galleries, having never featured in a major European exhibition. Until now that is, with a major retrospective at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Isamu Noguchi was very much an all-rounder, which means the exhibition mixes Noguchi’s large stone carvings outside with small interior works, like ceramics, drawings and works on paper, but most notably, the mid-century furniture classics he designed with Charles Eames, Paul László and George Nelson.
Take it all in from 18th July through to 22nd February.
Find out more at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park website
Remember Blockbusters? It was the must-see kids TV show of the 1980s, as two teams of players had to complete a line across the Blockbusters board. A board that looked very much like the once pictured here and named after host Bob Holness’ catchphrase – P Please Bob.
And besides being a slice of 80s nostalgia, it’s also a really cool way of storing your CDs. Take your pick from three wood veneer finishes (or pick a few of each), then match up the hexagonal shapes according to the size of your wall.
It costs £60 for three units, with each one after selling for £18.
Our favourite speakers of all time are the Grundig Audiorama speakers, but we might have revise that opinion after discovering the Viteo Zemi speaker.
This hand-finished Frolet/Pellisariot design is not just any speaker, this is an outdoor-friendly speaker, watertight thanks to its glazed ceramic finish. But you can use it indoors too – and with looks like a 70s light fitting, it should certainly look the part.
And it is high-end audio, offering an ‘incomparable’ audio experience apparently, although that does come at a price – around £945.
