Blog

Original Baldwin-Porter Etagere Finial

We recently completed an etagere version of our Cole Porter model and had an occasion to use the original finial for this client’s project. As a model that has been made many times now, by many different hands, we thought this small detail might be intriguing.  When Frederick originally made the etageres for Billy Baldwin, we used […]

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Turning a Finial…

Quick clip of a mahogany finial being fine-tuned on a lathe.  Who said lathes weren’t fun?

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Behind the Scenes at our One King's Lane Photo-shoot

We are gearing up for our very first collaboration with One King’s Lane.  We still have a lot of work to do, but we took these clips during our marathon photo-shoot.  Hope you enjoy the preview!  

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Thoughts for 2012

Thoughts for 2012 As my father and I prepare for 2012, I keep coming back to one primary concern: Europe. My concern is not so much about whether or not specific countries default on their debt, the EU finds a way to muddle through somehow, or even if the currency falls apart.  My main concern […]

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The same, but different…

We recently re-discovered a custom pair of our model R644 end tables and it got me thinking it might be fun to see how we have adapted the model over the years.  Fortunately, we have images of some the various ways we have made this model for clients. This black and white image above is […]

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Pichon à Uzes

Above is a short video of Tony discussing Pichon pottery.  Pichon à Uzes is a family owned factory founded in 1802 in the town of Uzes.  The firm is still in business under Chirstophe Pichon, more information is available here: http://www.ceramique-pichon.com/ .  In the video, Tony shares some examples of Pichon’s work from his own […]

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An Old Holiday Card…

We had quite an exciting discovery last weekend – Tony found this old holiday card from Elsie de Wolfe to my grandfather, Frederick Victoria!  It seems to be from 1950, and shows a super-imposed bust of Lady Mendl between her two dogs, all of which is supper-imposed on a, rather nice, marble mantel piece.   Moreover, […]

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FP Victoria on Park Pop-up Opening

Here are some photos from the opening evening at our pop-up installation at The Silver Peacock last week.  The pop-up is a collaboration between FPV and The Silver Peacock, so most of the furniture you see is ours, while most of the objects and linens are from The Silver Peacock.  With all the pieces we […]

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Louis XV Coiffeuse Armchair

We recently added this wonderful armchair to our available antique inventory. It’s quite charming and rare – it had a specific use as well as being made later in the Louis XV period, as it was just beginning to transition into the Louis XVI style. So to highlight the unique character of this chair we […]

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Trade Tips: Upholstery Trim

Hope the new year is off to a great start for you!  Here is the second in our 3-part series on upholstery.  This short clip covers basic methods of upholstery trim.  Enjoy!

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Notes for 2011

The last few weeks of 2010, as I try and think about what we might expect from 2011, reading the headlines alternating between recovery and recession themed stories has been frustrating.  For every legitimate story evidencing the nascent recovery, there is at least one or more that cause me to pause.  Most recently, the holiday shopping […]

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from F.P. Victoria & Son!

A holiday message to everyone from Tony and Freddy.  We wish you all a happy Holiday season and a happy and healthy 2011 for you and your family!

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Trade Tips: Upholstery Styles

Hello! We have taken far too long to put this next batch of videos together, but we are happy to finally have one for you to see. This video is the first of a three part series we are devoting to upholstery.  All too often these days, we find chairs that have had some foam […]

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Preview shots of Todd Romano's Los Angeles showroom

First, it has been far too long since we posted anything, even for a poster as infrequent as us.  Sorry for that.  On the plus side we have been busy and are planning more Trade Tips videos. One thing keeping us busy was a trip to visit Todd Romano’s new showroom in Los Angeles, which […]

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Trade Tips: 18th Century French Chairs

Here is our third Trade Tips video clip! Tony Victoria covers the defining characteristics of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI chairs as well as the transitional periods. He offers some great details to look for to help you identify the different styles. We hope you find it useful and enjoyable! Note: you may […]

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Trade Tips: Chair Frame Construction

We just finished our second Trade Tips video clip. This segment covers some of the basics of traditional chair construction and some key dimensions to keep in mind regarding chair design and comfortability. We hope you find it useful! Have a great Labor Day weekend! Please click on the link below for the video:

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Trade Tips: Gilding Techniques

Tony and I are trying something new – video blog clips! We shot our first “Trade Tips” clip yesterday. It is a quick overview covering tricks Tony has taught me to identity mercury gilding versus electrolytic bath gilding of brass mounts.  The topics for these clips will vary, this one being a bit more advanced, […]

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Learning from the Design Process

The development of this table has been a bit of an odyssey and a learning experience for me. Believe it or not, we starting working on this table in 2008! There were some structural problems that we had to fix: primarily the “wobbliness” of the frame. Without cross supports or the right gauge material, this […]

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Price and Quality, this weekend in Massachusetts…

This weekend I was in western Massachusetts, in an outlet store, and I stumbled across a perfect example of an issue I’ve been thinking about since I started working with my father: the trade-off between price and quality.  It was a chair very similar to the one in this image. It’s a knock-off variation of our […]

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Luxury Industries and the Internet

As we all know, last Friday was another bad day for the equity markets.  Most US indices lost just under 3.5%, triggered by the monthly payroll report.  Payrolls were up (and the overall unemployment rate was down, but this measure is pretty much useless unless you happen to be in politics), but nearly all the […]

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The industry and new ideas of Luxury

Over the weekend there was an excellent article in the New York Times about Town & Country and the new social trends it is adapting to under the able new leadership of Mr. Stephen Drucker.  If you have a client who has a computer, or iphone, and has heard of the Internet – you need […]

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Faux Bamboo Four Poster Bed

We recently completed a custom project for our client and friend, Albert Hadley, to make a grand, king size, four poster bed based on one of our designs from the Design Library.  This design has a classic chinoiserie feel – each bed post is made up of a cluster of 4 faux bamboo trees with matching […]

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Business and the Markets

This is somewhat of a departure from what I have written about in the past, but the recent trouble in the equity and fixed income markets make it difficult not to comment on.  After 2009, we all hope that 2010 will be better for our industry, and the days with 1 or 2%+ swings in […]

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Windsor Floor Standing Hurricane

You may have seen our over-scale hurricane model previously, but we recently made a custom pair for a client with perforated metal covers. The hurricanes rest on a metal base with a large, hand-blown glass shade around a single  candle.  They stand nearly 44″ off the ground overall.  Blowing a glass shade of this size and shape, to consistent […]

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Essential FPV

As you may have already seen, we have introduced a collection of furniture called Essential FPV.  Essential FPV is our way to offer custom quality designs at less-than custom prices.  The designs of each item are either from our Design Library or from our family’s private collection of pieces around our home.  In most cases, […]

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Just in time for Spring

It feels like we started this project ages ago but our new Hurricane LED Lamp is ready and we are very proud to finally be able to share it with you. It started with the white porcelain flowers that grandpa Freddy tucked away by the box.  There are many different sizes and shapes, but Tony and […]

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Our New R808 Side Table

We are very excited to have finished development on this table, our R808 Sidetable (very original name, right?).   As you see it is a 2-tier brass metal frame table in a gun-metal finish with a smoky “Circuit Boy” lacquer on the panels.    We started with a much thinner gauge metal frame with a blackened brass […]

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Custom mounts and castings

When we are commissioned to make a piece from the Library or something custom, we very often use custom mounts as well.  These are bronzes from antiques that we have owned over the years or that we’ve designed that are sufficiently unique to keep the mold of – and therefore avoid a lot of large re-development […]

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Marvelous Window by Michael Simon

Anyone passing by Scalamandre on Third avenue will surely notice the wonderful window that Michael Simon has installed there.  Michael, whose offices are in the same building as Scalamandre, really has a fantastic attention to detail, one that you find less and less these days. One of Tony and mine favorite details is the glass […]

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