‘lèche vitrine’, i’ve always liked the phrase… directly translating to something like ‘lick the window’; quite appropriate when visiting pan amsterdam.
this ‘licking’ can of course also be done at any of their bars or cafés which are generously scattered around the hall and decorated with interesting looking visitors, making for a refreshing change from all the beautiful objet d’art and such.
besides the general antique dealers there’s one stand in particular; mentink & roest with an impressive collection of antique clocks and manned by a couple that i refer to as the ‘ormulus d’oro’ since they were sitting so statically between all their ticking gilded wall clocks. here i was lucky enough to stand by as all of them took time to chime; it’s one of those moments when one realises the meaning of the passing of time in a most beautiful and sad way; not minutes, not hours, but centuries.
my other standstill moments were at the jewellery stands of marjan sterk, dekker antiquairs, galerie marzee and rob koudijs which together compose an unique journey of western adornment to me.
in the design department of the fair piet hein eek‘s lighting and midmod‘s vintage furniture museum with their rietveldt bonanza gets my vote. apart from a few other select items including a contemporary glass urn and xavier le normand‘s mirror at etienne gallery, a decorative oriental fish charger, kunstconsult‘s decorative 20th century pieces caught my attention with their amsterdamse school peculiarities while morentz also put on a great show with excellent pieces such as the 70’s carlos scarpa table in white marble.
a small european fair like pan amsterdam’s charm lies in a good mix of refreshments, discerning eye candy in terms of visitors and thoughtful displays of a lesser known pretty, which is exactly in the order that i appreciate it.
midmod
piet hein eek
galerie rob koudijs
mentink & roest
morentz
morentz
kunstconsult
etienne gallery
piet hein eek
mentink & roest
galerie rob koudijs
