The cocktail recipe shaker -- the 1950s glass vessel imprinted with directions on how to make drinks, plus cartoons and the occasional pink elephant -- is a staple of vintage barware, seemingly as common as a hangover on New Year's Day. The design above, the standout in Pottery Barn's Antique Bar product line, looks like a twist on the idea but actually has an older, more sophisticated Machine Age pedigree.

The Pottery Barn Recipe Cocktail Shaker is based on a simple operating principle: To fix the perfect old fashioned or 14 other cocktails, a budding bartender need only turn the lid to dial in the drink of choice. The ingredients appear in windows on the side of the 33.5-ounce stainless steel shaker.

According to Mark Bigler, collector, dealer and the steward of the Cocktail Shakers website, the Pottery Barn product is based on a 1930s design by Napier, a silversmith company also known for its modern costume jewelry.

Bigler, who said his 700-shaker collection is one of the world's largest, declared the design an enduring classic.

"I do have some of the Napier originals and they sell for around $250 to $300 depending on condition," he said.

Though Bigler doesn't believe that this newly mass-produced version will become a future collectible, the 10.5-inch tall Pottery Barn Recipe Cocktail Shaker is nicely priced for a personal bar tool or a holiday hostess gift. It's $39 in stores and at last check offered with free shipping for online purchasers. 

-- David A. Keeps

Photo credits: Pottery Barn

"The Look for Less" usually features original designs and dead-ringer imitations. This time, however, it illustrates how one look -- in this case, a 1970s metal sculpture -- seems to be echoed in a new, low-cost piece of wall art. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, a firm called Artisan House, which had factories in the San Fernando Valley, released decorative metal pieces signed C. Jere (a not-entirely-logical combination of the founders' names, Jerry Fels and Kurt Freiler). They were popular at the time and sold through Raymor, a Manhattan showroom that specialized in modern design and Italian imports.

But the post-Modernist and minimalist design movements of the 1980s and 1990s sent many of these spangly pieces to thrift shops, discarded as out-of-date kitsch. Some of the C. Jere designs regained their luster during the more recent Midcentury Modern and Hollywood Regency revivals.

In the November issue of Elle Decor, writer Mitchell Owens traced the history of C. Jere, saying that the '60s and '70s pieces "are attracting the admiration of leading dealers in vintage chic." The Raindrops sculpture above was cited as C. Jere's best-known design.

Signed originals cost $5,000 and up on the design website 1stdibs. Jonathan Adler sells new reproductions of Raindrops made by Artisan House for $1,650. 

The reemergence of C. Jere wall decor has not gone unnoticed. West Elm gives it a rustic spin with its Leaf Cluster, right.

Keep reading to see how the two pieces stack up ... 

It's pretty much impossible to lead with any other photo than this: As Christine Hoehner heads up the stairs of her cottage, her dog, Emily Dickinson, sticks around for the photo op. Lucky girl. She lives in a Moody sisters cottage, one of about three dozen built in the 1930s and '40s by Harriet, Mildred, Brenda and Wilma Moody. Extreme angles and mismatched architectural elements add up to pure whimsy. We've got:

The full article by Frank Nelson.

The 39-picture photo gallery of two Moody cottages. A little preview:

Built-in shelves and nooks galore.

Charmers from the outside ...

... and the inside.

Photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

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Our print section Saturday contains a collection of stories on cottage living, including a profile of Venice artist Lynn Hanson. From writer Barbara Thornburg's article:

They began by painting the exterior a chalky hue, then added a proverbial white picket fence. Inside, they took down the wall between the living room and kitchen, with its saloon-style swinging doors, to enlarge the itsy space. Removing the blue and green shag carpeting revealed a nice hardwood floor. White-washing cabinets and adding a galvanized metal countertop and a nifty 1940 Gaffers & Sattler stove transformed the small kitchen.... A 1940s dining table covered with a vintage tablecloth stands in the kitchen alongside a corner cabinet, both Santa Monica flea market treasures.

We've got more pictures in the accompanying photo gallery.

Credit: Jeremy Samuelson

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David Aikens has been taking apart stoves since he was a teenager, but his interest in vintage objects goes back to kindergarten. His mother loved poking through junk stores, and he loved going with her.

His parents bought a furniture store in 1960. Now Aikens runs the business, and he's best known as a go-to guy for vintage stoves, such as the Town and Country model pictured at top: 5 feet long, six burners, two ovens, a broiler -- and storage.

Aikens' story is the latest installment in "The Fixers," our series on the masters of home repair.

 
In a spell-check-challenged exhibition titled "You ... Go, Girlz!" Ramon Delgado-Maynes, owner of the L.A. vintage design store Material Environment, celebrates contemporary female artists and furniture designers including decorator Kelly Wearstler, fashionista Linda Loudermilk  and sculptor Karin Swildens. The show runs through Nov. 21 at 7466 Beverly Blvd.

The big discovery: Betty Cobonpue, right, a Philippines-based designer who in the 1980s created a line of furniture called Scultura. The collection included the bedroom ensemble above. The pieces are superbly crafted with prices that reflect their rarity: A dresser with ribbon detailing that twists and curls to form pulls on the six drawers is $2,850. The matching side tables are $2,450 for the pair. The lamps, which sit on flared marble tables, are $1,400 for the pair.

Looking at them? Free.  

Delgado-Manes discovered these unusual items at an estate sale of a Filipina homeowner in Agoura Hills who had commissioned a suite of furniture from Cobonpue.

"At face value, the unique fantasy beauty of the pieces was enough," Delgado-Manes said. "Discovering her philosophy surrounding this articulated yet organic design inspired this show."

Cobonpue has described her design sensibility with a simple mantra: "No hard edges." In her work, lines flow smoothly through the entire piece. She often includes decorative embellishments such as leaf patterns and scalloped edges. Unlike contemporary furniture that is woven, Cobonpue's furniture is made from thin pieces of rattan vine, meticulously cut, heated and wet-bent over wooden forms.

"This method makes them very strong, not wobbly like most furniture made of the same materials," Delgado-Manes said. Her ability to maintain a consistent finish is "mesmerizing."

Though she has retired, Cobonpue passed her skills and sensibility to her son, Kenneth Cobonpue, who sells equally innovative contemporary furniture at Twentieth. Keep reading to see more of Betty Cobonpue's designs ...

Long before Shepard Fairey created the Obama "Hope" poster, Ben Shahn (1898-1969) spread his own word as a renowned American Social Realist painter and illustrator. Among Shahn's works: striking images in a series of voter registration lithographs that includes the 1946 poster above, published by the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

On Nov. 14, Rago Arts  in Lambertville, N.J., will conclude a weekend sale of fine art with property from the estate of Shahn and his wife, Bernarda. The auction estimate for the work pictured here is $1,000 to $1,500. It contains many of Shahn's artistic signatures: precisely drawn figures rendered with minimal lines, integrated text and the strong color palette that he developed using matte tempera. 

The Rago sale includes not only original works and prints by Shahn and his wife, but also figurines and paintings from their travels to Asia and works by luminaries such as Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg and sculptor Leonard Baskin.

Also going to auction: furnishings from the Shahns' Bauhaus-influenced studio and home in Roosevelt, N.J., which had an addition designed and built in the 1960s by the acclaimed woodworker George Nakashima.

Nakashima also produced bedroom furniture and a dining suite, below (table estimated at $4,000 to $6,000, dining chairs estimated at $2,000 to $3,000 for a pair, or $3,500 to $4,500 for a set of four). Those pieces will be sold along with a pair of Eames DCW chairs (estimated at $800 to $1,200 for both) and chairs by Finn Juhl and Niels Vodder. The full catalog is available for online perusal. 

East Coast readers can see the Ben and Bernarda Shahn collection on display in the preview exhibition from Nov. 6 to 12 at Rago Arts, 333 Main St., Lambertville, N.J.; (609) 397-9374

-- David A. Keeps

Photo: Lynette Mager / Rago Arts 

Our latest house gallery: Jackie Beat, L.A. drag queen extraordinaire, and her house of vintage style. Read David A. Keeps' article or peruse the 23-picture photo gallery. A preview:

Kitchen cuteness.

The "Carrie" room.

The TV room (and yes, there's a Golden Girls portrait somewhere in there). See more.

Photo credits: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

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Interior designer Scott Roberts, who recently completed the offices of the Farrah Fawcett Foundation in Beverly Hills, has teamed with his partner and L.A. Times Home section subject Bryan Fuller to create Fuller & Roberts.The swank home decor boutique has handsomely refinished 20th century designs, Roberts' original furnishings and Fuller's stash of vintage movie posters -- all in one of the newest additions to the Collection, an upscale antiques and vintage cooperative on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles. 

The store reflects the partners' mutual appreciation for American and British decor in the 1900s, "when traditional and modern collided with swell results," Roberts says. "It's masculine, tailored and slightly screwball. Butch and pretty."

That's Fuller, best known as a writer-director, standing, and Roberts, sitting on the arm of his horse-hoofed Saratoga chair while puggle pup Lou hogs the seat. Fuller and Roberts launched the store with a party Sept. 30. Roberts filled the limestone fireplace with birch logs and a flat screen TV showing the 1940 screwball comedy "The Philadelphia Story." Guests admired equine lamps, including the cast bronze and limed oak Hitching Post floor lamp ($1,800) above, and drank a specially concocted cocktail called the Giddyup.

Why so much horsing around?

"I love horses and equestrian design. It's a perfect blend of beauty and utility," Roberts says.

At an early age, the designer fell under the spell of classic movies such as "The Philadelphia Story" and "Suspicion" and idealized the elegant athletic world they promoted.

"If I could make people enter the shop through a mud room, I would," he adds. 

The Saratoga chair has solid maple horse hoof feet, right, hand carved by a Los Angeles artisan. The chair was designed with an extra deep seat for Roberts, who is 6-foot-5-inches.

"The generous proportions are meant to lure you into curling up with a book," he says.

Shown here in camel cashmere-wool, it costs $3,800; a version in black with lacquered hooves is the same price. If customers provide their own fabric, the chair costs $3,000 and takes six weeks to produce.

Keep reading to see more of the store ...

The Melrose Project is an ambitious attempt to present fine antiques, vintage industrial pieces and contemporary furniture as works of art -- with prices to match. The store opened last month in a 9,000-square-foot loft-style building by architect Bruno Bondanelli across the street from the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.  

Mother-son founders Kathleen and Tommy Clements designed the Melrose Project as an alternative to traditional antiques collectives. It's stocked with inventively displayed pieces cherry-picked from Los Angeles antique stores including Lee Stanton, which provided the 18th century oak Belgian convent armoire ($45,000) and 1920s French chairs ($7,500 for a set of six), above. The 24-light Italian neo-Gothic gilt bronze chandelier ($39,100) is from Robuck & Co. of Atlanta. 

"A lot of dealers don't have the room for grand-scale pieces," Tommy Clements said. "We want to allow each piece to breathe so they can be fully appreciated."

The cost of some pieces may indeed take one's breath away. "I have seen some people blanch, definitely," Tommy Clements added. "The prices befit the quality, and we may not be the place to fill up your entire home, but if you want important statement pieces, that's where we come in."

The Santa Monica store Obsolete provides the Melrose Project with artwork and newly configured lighting made from vintage industrial parts. The Melrose Project recently landed an L.A. exclusive on Olatz bedding, a luxury line designed by the wife of artist Julian Schnabel. Antique carpets and contemporary rugs come from Woven Accents, including the Clements-designed  Gypsy Maturin line. 

Working as an interior designer for "more years than I want to talk about," Kathleen Clements added that she has also developed a line of furniture including the made-to-order Hudson sofa, above right, which has one continuous down-and-feather seat cushion and starts at about $5,000.  

Keep reading to see more ...

Poor Peggy Olson. The "Mad Men" copywriter (played by Elisabeth Moss, above) has to fight for respect from her male colleagues (and office queen bee Joan), she frequently commits fashion don'ts, and she has an uncanny knack for choosing the wrong men. 

Happily, her taste in art is unimpeachable. In a recent episode, I spotted what appeared to be two prints by Los Angeles artist David Weidman, whom I recently profiled. A quick call to his daughter, Lenna, confirmed that the 1960s works were, in fact, Weidman's and are available for purchase through the website Weidman's Art. 

"The Girls," near right, measures 11 by 30.5 inches and sells for $575. "Flowers II," far right, is 15 by 29 inches and priced at $550. (A version in blue is $450.)

"The style is very distinctive and indicative of that era and the popularity of Danish modern," set decorator Claudette Didul says of Weidman's work. "They remind me of pictures I saw growing up and seemed in keeping with Peggy's sensibilities and reflect her younger and somewhat more cheerful outlook."

The offices of Peggy's agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, offer a stark contrast to the somewhat gloomy homes of the characters. Don Draper's bachelor pad is downright dreary, but he works in an environment bursting with color, one that reflects the bright optimism of mid-1960s design. To see more of it, keep reading....

A glamorous globetrotter's fantasy room designed in the late 1990s by Tony Duquette and Hutton Wilkinson will be reassembled in Los Angeles for public ooh-ing and aah-ing before the contents hit the block at Bonhams & Butterfields' 20th Century Decorative Arts auction on Oct. 5.

"It was a difficult room, with doors and windows in all the wrong places," Wilkinson said of the commission, "but it did have a tall, peaked ceiling we wanted to play up. A tented room was the answer, hiding a multitude of sins and making an exciting casbah for entertaining."

The room was draped in a coral branch fabric printed in Jaipur, India, and featured signature Duquette designs: streamlined banquette sofas, an Asian-style altar table painted vivid coral, wall sconces made from iron and automobile hubcaps (to be auctioned in sets of four and estimated at $3,000 to $5,000), and a leopard-print rug about 9 feet by 12 feet (estimated at $1,000 to $1,500). 

And what exactly are those unusual seats in front of the Moroccan side tables?

"The eccentric chairs represent the peacock throne of Shiva," Wilkinson said of the intricately detailed metal pieces, right, which balance on the legs, head and tail feather of a stylized bird. A set of four created in India for the room is expected to fetch between $5,000 and $8,000. 

The piece de resistance, Wilkinson added, was the mother of pearl and raffia coral branch chandelier. "I made this with Tony specifically for this installation, and I have very fond memories of those days," he recalled. "He died on September 9, 1999, the day this room was being installed." That piece also, apparently, had sentimental value to the owners of the house for which it was created. It is not being offered for sale at the auction, but other Duquette pieces from various collectors are. Keep reading to see more photos as well as details of the public preview and sale ...