Ausgezeichnet! Ten minutes surfing through the 50 year-archive that Form, the Swiss-German design magazine, just put online, and already I feel like Homer Simpson at the candy convention. My raincoat's stuffed full, and instead of one, there are like a hundred gummi Venus di Milos, at least.
It feels like it could take 50 years to process all the cool toys, furniture, design, playgrounds, schools, and events that must be lurking in there. I'll just throw out a couple of stunners found literally at random, and then hope everyone will start mining--and maybe translating a bit--more great stuff.
The sweet, simple table and chairs above are from 1964, Issue 25. They're by Karl Wiegand, manufactured by Fulgorwerk. Does that mean anything to anyone? The same page shows a beanstalk-like climbing frame by Nanna Ditzel.
What's this here in Issue 28? [also '64] Oh, just one of the modular modernist doll houses by Kurt Naef. [Those those figures look like Vitali; The post-war Swiss toy industry must be pretty tight.]
In a report from the 1960 Milan Triennale published in Vol. 11, Form described this Italian children's bed as "somewhat rustic." If it means getting all those dovetail joints, I'd like a double serving of rustic, please. [update: actually, "mock dovetail" joints, thanks, Josh -ed.]
Form: The Making Of Design [form.de via dezeen]
Those aren't actually dovetail joints. Those joints are keyed with a lighter wood to resemble dovetails. Still very mod - it was favorite aesthetic affect of Tage Frid's.
[aha. thanks for the correction. now I'm off to Google Tage Frid. -ed.]
I was going to ask you for more detail about the joint, but if you go to Amazon and pull up "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking" (now on my wish list, thanks Josh), you can use the search inside the book function to find some more info. It's called a mock dovetail. It's a mitered joint with dovetail cuts made perpendicular to the joint face.
"Those those figures look like Vitali; The post-war Swiss toy industry must be pretty tight."
This from "Kurt Naef: Der Spielzeugmacher/The Toymaker":
"In 1958, the proprietor of the Pastorini toyshop in Zurich informed Kurt Naef that the toy-maker Antonio Vitali was looking for a buyer for his company. Vitali toys were, at the time, an ideal addition to the Naef collection, and both businessmen reached an agreement. Vitali would be taken over by Naef and continue operating. Vitali undertook to go on producing its speciality -- sculptural wooden animals -- in its own workshop; Naef would produce those Vitali toys that matched its own programme. They got on well, and their cooperation proved to be a success... However, in 1965 friction between the two proved damaging to their business relationship and ultimately led to their terminating their cooperation agreement."
Tight indeed, but only up to a point.
[yeah, all that even-keeled neutrality, even Swiss get fed up sometimes. Thanks for the reference -ed.]
just how mock do you like your dovetails? I reckon this beats all...