It’s All About the Green!

In celebration of the beginning of spring, and of course, St. Patrick’s Day, we have chosen a selection of green items at Halcyon House! The shades range from the softest spring green to the deepest malachite green. Take a look!For more information, call our Eric, and he’ll take care of you. Your friends will be green with envy when they see your new greenery!

Elegant Organization

If you’re like we are, you’re always looking for ways to become more organized, especially when you’re travelling. These pieces are also great to tuck into a handbag or a tote bag.

These luggage tags in mock croc and alligator will give your bags an added air of elegance.

These envelopes are perfect for holding tickets, receipts, and other small items. I use mine to carry my iPhone in my handbag, so the lens on the camera won’t get scratched.

These passport cases are great for both your passport and your trusted traveler card.

These little round cases are perfect for small items like earrings and cufflinks.

These small envelopes are the ideal size for holding business cards, credit cards and even your drivers license.

Halcyon House has a great selection of sizes and colors. If you see something that interests you, or you’d like one of the pieces in a different color or texture, please let Eric know!

Fall Style!

Now that fall is well and truly upon us, although 70* days occasionally pop up, it’s time to jettison that summer bag and pick up a new fall one. We’ve got a great selection of wonderful felt bags that have just come in, including shoppers, totes and clutches.

As always, if you see something here which piques your interest, contact Eric. He’s as interesting as anything you’ll find in the shop!

Turquoise is the Color of Summer!

It’s almost the end of August, and whether you’ve been sitting around the pool, or have just been out and about, you’ve probably got a great tan by now. There is nothing at all that looks better with a tan than turquoise… Well, maybe white.

As I was wandering around the shop on Saturday, I noticed that we have a few great pieces of turquoise, and the best thing is that most of them are HALF OFF!

Let’s check out some of what’s in the image…

• A turquoise and white tunic – the tunic along with a pair of white skinnies would look great for a girls lunch, picking up the kids at school, or just a jaunt to the liquor store!
• A turquoise and white chevron tote bag – great for groceries or packing things to tote to those waning days at the pool.
• Double strand of ombre clear and turquoise faceted beads – can be dressed up or down.
• Large linked chain – this is so on-trend for this year, and it would look great with a LBD.

Don’t forget – if anything here is of interest, please contact Eric, our man with a tan.

Set the Table, Please.

We were playing around with some table-settings the other day, pulling china pieces out and replacing them with others. Moving napkins, changing silverware and glasses. All for our fun and your entertainment.

We started with the fish course, with two of our fun fish dishes.

Here, we went for slightly fewer than 50 shades of blue, with some classical patterns and some whimsical ones, too.

Now we are starting to layer the plates, with three complimentary dishes. Although we’re mixing a lot of patterns, they all work together because they’re all a similar scale and aesthetic, and they’re all shades of blues.

As always, if you’re interested in anything you see here, please contact Eric.

Architectural Watercolours

Tuesday night saw the opening reception and sale of the architectural watercolors at Halcyon House Antiques, and we were pleased to see so many of our friends there.
The show will be hanging for another month or so. The shop is filled with the most beautiful architectural watercolors, drawings and models, as well as some significant pieces of furniture, brought in specially for the show.
Most of the watercolors were done in the 1800 and 1900’s and are drawings washed with colors. Most subjects are classical studies.
Some of the special pieces included this beautiful inlaid piece by David Linley, Queen Elizabeth’s nephew, whose work is collected all over the world.
Another piece, although not an architectural study, was this beautiful drawing room from the 1930’s, painted by Cecil Beaton.
One of the pieces we loved was this wood and glass lantern.
And this fabulous chair with the forced perspective of the trees,
which reminded us of the allée of trees elsewhere on the property.
And how about this chair? Can you say leopard!
Some of the architectural models included this pavilion,
and this bridge.
And in the center of the hors d’oeuvres was an birdcage, complete with a porch.
In addition to the framed prints, there was also a selection of unframed prints of various subjects, including this elevation and plan of the Maryland Institute College of Art.
One of the highlights of the events was a brief talk given by the eminent architect, and founder of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, Walter Schamu, FAIA. He spoke on the training given to architecture students in the past at places like the Universities of Virginia and Pennsylvania and of course, Yale. Walter lamented that there wouldn’t be drawings like these of contemporary buildings that people would look back and admire in 100 years because everything’s done on the computer.
If you’re interested in the Architectural Watercolors Show, or anything you see here, please contact Eric at Halcyon House Antiques.

Marsala: Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2015

Each year, Pantone, the official color matching system, announces their color of the year, and there is always a lot of chatter about it, both positive and negative. The color for 2015 is Marsala.

For those of us who remember the burgundy of bygone years, Marsala is more of the same. Sort of a faded burgundy. From Pantone’s press: Much like the fortified wine that gives Marsala its name, this tasteful hue embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal while its grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness.

Marsala is quite a change from the past few years, which were clear, bright colors. Marsala is interesting in that it has a lot of green in it and also some blue. As I wandered around Halcyon House Antiques on Saturday, I spotted a number of items that fit into the Marsala color range.

There is not really anything that we have that I think is the true MARSALA color as proscribed by the Pantone Color Institute, but some of these come close.