Summer 2015 Leisure

SUMMER 2015
www.tzelan.com
ISSUE 3
the fifth quarterly
a tribute to artful living
“”
Leisure
is the disposition of
perceptive understanding,
of contemplative beholding,
and immersion — in the real.
— Josef Pieper
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06
10
12
latest creations
the collected
facts & figures
on site: sérempuy
Through artful chevron and arabesque prints,
Discover the eccentric ephemera of legendary
Tzelan decodes its modernist minibar, an homage
Take a trip to the Midi-Pyrénées in southwest
Tzelan brings a simple and sophisticated charm to
writer Ernest Hemingway at his hideaway,
to the late great prose writers of America’s early
France, where 1.26 square miles serves as summer’s
its new collection of lacquer boxes
Finca Vigía, in San Francisco De Paula, Cuba
20 century, with meaningful moderation
most idyllic setting
th
SUMMER 2015
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is
GOING GLOBAL
S HOP
ONLINE
TH IS
FALL
2 0 1 5
C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T : Dinner is served for July 4 th in the Hamptons, fresh off the grill; white sand beaches stretch for miles in Varadero, Cuba; Tzelan's
Alison Chi poses outside of Hemingway's Finca Vigía; Tzelan's Tammy Chou basks in Old Havana's glow; Superga sneakers and a sunset in Hvar, Croatia; peeking through
the hedges in Sérempuy, France.
Summer Soliloquy
a letter from tzelan
W
www.tzelan.com | sales@tzelan.com | tel. 1.212.465.1109
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e have had our gaze locked in on the horizon since early June,
counting down the days leading up to the solstice (summer's
onset), when we began our travels from tarmac to tarmac.
Somewhere between the earthly terrain and the sky-high
clouds soaring at 39,000 feet, fresh new perspectives were
born. We collected countless Platonic sunsets, crafted the consummate aperitif and
enjoyed fresh-grilled seafood with subtle squeezes of lemon as our friends told tales
of their respective pursuits for true and artful living.
In this abridged issue of The Fifth Quarterly, we have chosen to celebrate the global
nomads, the mindful thinkers and creative captains of industry who are bound together
by artistry, authenticity and beauty. They champion alternatives to mainstream living
and prefer sanctuaries in nature––like Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban hideaway, Finca
Vigía, in the Havana suburb of San Francisco de Paula (pg. 6), or even far-flung locale
like Sérempuy, France (courtesy of Tzelan friend Patrick Dayen, pg.12)––and abroad,
where respite is rewarded and time simply transforms or is done away with altogether.
No longer defined as a means for achieving financial gain, time is not money, but life.
We further ask our friends the simple question, “What do you live for?” Their
collective responses, whether told IRL or researched, reveal truths that convention
and the bustle of 21st century living may conceal.
Their shared secret? Not being afraid to let it all go.
In today’s globalized world where we are enslaved by our productivity, other people’s
perceptions and the ever-elusive, work-life balance, leisure and idling have become
defined as luxuries (or oddities!). But, as German philosopher Josef Pieper argues in
his 1948 manifesto “Leisure, the Basis of Culture,” leisure is an essential endeavor––it
allows us to reclaim our human dignity and begets brilliant moments of unbridled
creativity and contemplation.
“[Leisure] is not the same as the absence of activity,” Pieper explains, “or even as
an inner quiet. It is rather like the stillness in the conversation of lovers, which is
fed by their oneness.” Our summer soliloquy, therefore, saw moments of still calm,
in addition to the continued commitment to our ultimate love, Tzelan. Whether in
the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, we made sure to fine-tune our digital home
www.tzelan.com, transforming it into an online storefront, and gently tended to our
creative partnerships around the world, making sure our newest products (whether a
collection of lacquer boxes, pg. 5; or a sleek minibar, pg. 10) embodied our easy ethos.
So it is with healthy glows and fully idled minds that we begin our embrace of fall.
Until the equinox.
Alison Chi & Tammy Chou
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THE
CTAV E
P RE CIOUS- CUT
M U LT I - P U R P O S E ,
M AK ING
OPTICA L
GL A S S.
DOUBLE-SIDED
F L A IR
D E SI GN .
F UNCTIONAL.
Summer sees the launch of Tzelan’s collection of lacquer boxes, laden with intricate
arabesque motifs, delicate chevrons and sophisticated stripes inspired by pendant flags
and textiles of yore. Dark blue hues and ebony base tones are complemented by soft
gray and gold accents for a timeless effect. Produced in sold wood frames with a glossy
lacquer finish in Guangzhou, China, this series of boxes stack neatly in tiers for bookshelf
or tabletop display.
Stars & Stripes
latest creations
sales @ tzelan.com | www.tzelan.com
designed by Jessica Corr
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SUMMER 2015
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h e m i n g way ’ s h i d e away
the collected
Finca Vigía sits on a hilltop in San Francisco de Paula, fifteen miles east of Havana, Cuba. It’s here where the great American
writer Ernest Hemingway wrote some of his most celebrated works, like The Old Man and the Sea and A Moveable Feast.
For this installment of our continuing series “The Collected,” which features the intimate spaces of creativity and collection
from inspired personalities past, present and future, we visit the novelist’s famed Lookout Farm.
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C ORON A
T YP E WRI T ER
Hemingway famously
wrote standing,
typically in a pair of
oversized loafers,
with his typewriter
and reading board
opposite him, his
bookshelf as a desk.
B O OKCA SE
“I’m always reading
books––as many
as there are,”
Hemingway was
quoted as saying.
“I ration myself on
them so that I’ll
always be in supply."
A B O V E : Glimpsing into writer Ernest Hemingway's living room at Finca Vigía, where the property's contents are still preserved today.
WORKRO O M
Upstairs in the
square tower
in Finca Vigía’s
southwest corner
was Hemingway’s
special workroom,
which consisted of a
single desk, lounge
chair and other
sparse furnishings.
P R E V I O U S P A G E : A wide-angle view of Hemingway's pool, where he swam daily as a break from writing.
“”
I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it
is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write...
“E
rnest Hemingway writes in the bedroom of his house in the
Havana suburb of San Francisco de Paula. He has a special
workroom prepared for him in a square tower at the southwest
corner of the house, but prefers to work in his bedroom, climbing
the tower room only when ‘characters’ drive him up there,” writes
George Plimpton in his article for The Paris Review‘s Spring 1958 issue, whereby he
interviews and writes about the literary icon in exacting detail.
It’s revealed that Hemingway always wrote standing; that he wore down number
two pencils on typewriter paper when beginning projects; that he kept rigorous track
of his daily word count (which varied in the 400’s, 500’s or 1000’s depending on the
day); that his surroundings were particularly littered with trinkets and ephemera that
the writer amassed throughout the years: stacks of books, wood carvings of animals,
stuffed caribou heads, shotgun shells, letters and buffalo horns. (He was a hoarder.)
Finca Vigía, which is Spanish for Lookout Farm, was built in 1886 and purchased by
Hemingway in 1940 (he began living there in 1939). It was there where he produced
some of his most salient works and where legendary actress Ava Gardner famously
swam naked in the estate's pool (he also swam half a mile daily as a break from writing
around noon). Following his abrupt death in 1961, the home and its contents were
bequeathed to the people of Cuba, whom he had tremendous affection for.
On approach to the house, past the gates, where baseball is still played today in the
street outside, his home is kept in perfect form. “Crystallized in time,” describes Valerie
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Hemingway, the novelist’s last personal secretary in Smithsonian Magazine in August
2007 of the home's overall look and feel. “Looking at the chintz-covered chair in the
living room,” she recounts, “I saw Hemingway’s ample figure as he sat holding a glass
of scotch in one hand, his head slightly nodding to a George Gershwin tune coming
from the record player. In the dining room, I saw not the heavy oblong wooden table
with its sampling of china place settings, but a spread of food and wine and a meal in
progress, with conversation and laughter and Ernest and [wife] Mary occasionally calling
each other ‘kitten’ and ‘lamb.’ In the pantry, where the seven servants ate and relaxed,
I recalled watching Friday-night boxing broadcasts from Madison Square Garden.”
But despite the chatter and noise, Hemingway preferred to write in the mornings,
irrespective of whether he was in Paris, Idaho, Key West or Cuba. It was then that the
writer did his best work. “I write every morning as soon after first light as possible,” he
tells Plimpton. “There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to
your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always
stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write
until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen
next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again…
When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when
you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen,
nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until
the next day that is hard to get through.”
MOVE ABL E
FE A S T
Located directly
across the
main entrance,
Hemingway's living
room housed an
oblong table where
a "meal was always
in progress."
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SUMMER 2015
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1
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3
1
Modernist Minibar
MIRROR
2
DISPL AY
ORG ANIZATIONAL
3
DIVIDERS
MINI - FRIDGE
facts & figures
“My vision of the world at its brightest is such that life without the use of its amenities is impossible,” writes F.
Scott Fitzgerald, the author of iconic American novels The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night. Fitzgerald, like
many other prominent 20th century American writers—think Faulkner, Steinbeck, Hemingway and Yates—had a
precarious relationship with alcohol: consumption promoted fantasy, bolstered confidence and assuaged feelings
of loneliness that arose from an isolating creative process.
Here, we pay homage to the late greats whose penmanship brought purposeful, poetic charm to a prolific period
of American fiction, with an inspired, modernist minibar. With a gentlemanly air, this standalone piece features
two drop-down doors with pull-out, peach mirror-lined drawers, built-in organization dividers and a mini-fridge
to keep beverages (and booze) cool and ready to serve.
But remember, everything in moderation.
made from
oil-rubbed quarter sawn
1
D EC E MB E R 2 01 3 ,
when the first prototype was reviewed.
month, the time it took to develop the
modernist minibar.
8008
width
height
depth
1200cm
1100cm
550cm
in a
NATURAL FINISH
WINT ER 2 0 14,
when the minibar was launched as part of Tzelan’s
inaugural studio collection.
RIFT OAK
DIMENSIONS
M AT E R I A L
miles, the distance the minibar
traveled from its factory in
Guangzhou, China to
New York’s Tzelan House.
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1
3
2
4
N
on site
estled in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southwest
France is a tiny commune in Gers called Sérempuy.
Blink, and you just might miss the 1.26 square miles
of French countryside known for its decadent duck
products and Armagnac brandy. It’s population? 38.
Each summer, Tzelan’s Alison Chi sojourns to the bucolic setting
amidst rolling hills and endless plains of sunflowers “that turn to face
the sun in the peak of summer season.” Chateau Sérempuy formerly
belonged to Joseph Marquis de Mauleon, the Lord of Sérempuy during
the late 18th century and was restored 25 years ago by Tzelan’s friend and
proponent of artful living, Patrick Dayen.
The six-bedroom home, was uniquely designed to accommodate his
family, complete with a billiards and game room, office den filled with
art geared toward Dayen’s passion for cars and Armagnac, a family-style
kitchen and a natural, outdoor pool filled to be a nostalgic shade of green.
Daily Sérempuy rituals include folding the French-style shutter
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windows open and close, the click-clack sounds that became associated
with sunrise and sunset. Time was also spent foraging the surrounding
terrain for food—chickens from the coop across the street, vegetables
from the garden, garlic that hung to dry in the old stable.
Additional sustenance was also procured from the neighboring
village of Mauvezin, or even further, in Fleurance. Jams and sauces
were prepared a season in advance. Arranging fresh-cut flowers from
the garden and setting the table precluded mealtimes. Sundowners
were enjoyed with Pimm’s Cup, rosé wine, homemade saucisson, local
foie gras and crisps.
Other hours were filled with conversation, sunbathing, reading,
napping and idling. Sleep in the chateau’s canopy-style bed frames,
traditionally used by lords and noblemen in medieval Europe, provided
a comforting sense of warmth and privacy.
Life in this quaint village serves as a sharp contrast to the urban
bustle of New York City. Sérempuy, we look forward to returning soon.
1. Chateau Sérempuy and Tzelan friend, chef Richie Barrow. 2. Friends gather for rosé wine at sunset.
3. Freshly picked cherries from the chateau's grounds. 4. Another day comes to a close in southwest France.
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2
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1. Locally grown artichokes were steamed and served with generous pours of red wine. 2. Another Sérempuy sunset is
captured with a beauteous sky. 3. The mise en scène at dinner.
bath
for contract inquiries,
contact cooper & graham at:
+1.212.226.2242
commsales@cooperandgraham.com
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SUMMER 2015
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AC K N OW L EDG MEN T S
SP ECIAL
T HANKS :
Patrick & Capucine Dayen
George Venson, Voutsa
www.voutsa.com
Are you following us yet?
EDI T ING :
DE SIGN :
P RODU C T ION :
P HOTO GR AP HY :
Elizabeth L. Peng
Robert Louey
Gerald Morin
Concept Press Inc.
Alison Chi
Tony Chi
Gerald Morin
new yor k cit y
tzelan@tzelan.co m
www.tzelan.co m
#tzelanmoment
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@tzelanhouse
all rights reserved
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t z e l a n i n t e r nat i o na l l l c
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SUMMER 2015
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the
ongo lamp
before we say goodbye
The innovative Ongo lamp, a Tzelan & Contardi collaboration, features convenient portability,
high performance LED and an engineered battery-operated power source in two adjustable
light intensities. Providing a soft, elegant glow to any tabletop or decorative setting, the Ongo is
available in precious metal finishes and handblown Murano glass for mix-and-match style.
Available for purchase at $398. Please contact sales@tzelan.com for contract inquiries.
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The Fif th Quar terly | Winter 2015 Issue 4
beyond.eastmeetswest