Showing posts sorted by relevance for query The Gilded Beaver. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query The Gilded Beaver. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, June 12, 2020

The Gilded Beaver by Margaret Lindsay Holton, Second Edition - June Release, 2020

NOW AVAILABLE on AMAZON
It is with both sadness and delight that I can now able 'reveal' that yes, I, Margaret Lindsay Holton, am the author of the award-winning 1999 novel, 'The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous'

It's sad, because the 'verbal deal' that I made with the antagonist of this quasi-fictional work died this March of natural causes in his 80th year. Yet, I am delighted because, now, I can rightfully claim this 'story' as my own.

Why did we make this 'deal'? 
It's complicated, but suffice it to say, that on successful completion of an ambitious design commission, I wrote about the nit-grit of what REALLY happened during the process. When I asked the client for permission to publish our story, he agreed, on one condition: we were both to remain anonymous, until, quote, "one of us dies."

'Anonymous' 1st Edition  
- I agreed to that, and soon released 'The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous' in a limited-edition paperback under my own artists' imprint. It did well enough, even though, at the time of release, no-one had any idea where it had come from.

Newspaper reviews, at the time, had some fun with it, calling it 'a mysterious psycho-sexual tug of war in the design world' and 'a dance of intellect and eros that expertly unfolds ... closes with panache'I was eventually outed as the author by The Ottawa Citizen, but by then, the initial interest had subsided, and life went on. For all intent and purposes, the title remained 'anonymous' and has sold that way for the past twenty years. However, overtime, I began to regret my 'anonymous author' decision. Why?

Because, in simple terms, very few people understand what transpires when an artist - or designer - interacts with a client. It is often so much more than just a financial transaction or a power dynamic exercised by one - (who has money over one who does not) - to 'do what they want'.

Carving Detail on the Winter Chair
When a self-professed mover & shaker, (in this instance 'G'), offered an ambitious designer, (in this instance, me), the opportunity to do BETTER than their BEST, the design dynamic changes dramatically.

'G' did offer an opportunity to do something spectacular to ADD to 'Canadian Material Culture', and I did just that. But, on route, there were bumps, lumps, periodic disagreements, confusion and personal upsets.

We did manage it in the end, but, believe me, it was not easy. As a client, he was imperious, moody, petulant, demanding, and in the end, a bit of an a**hole primarily because of the money issue ...

Money is an on-going concern for small business owners to keep 'cash flow' going. (It's not of such concern for big-wig financiers who always have easy access to bank credit.) One of my reasons for initially writing this work was to articulate - and demonstrate - what a fine line it is between feast and famine for those who live, out of necessity, paycheck to paycheck.

Autumn, The Four Canadian Fireside Chairs by MLHolton
When the anonymous first edition come out in 1999, I was not able - or permitted  - to 'claim' the good work that was done by so many skilled craftsmen. Nor was I able to promote these new furniture pieces for their good design and exemplary workmanship that would have legitimately positioned them in the international global arena of FINE #DECORATIVEARTSI was just not permitted to speak about them because of the aforementioned 'deal'.
Admittedly, this is all very obscure to most, but for those 'in the trade', they understand that fine decorative objects artfully reflect the culture from which the items spring. Ultimately, well-designed decorative art works honour the precise hand-skill traditions of solid eye-hand-and-heart co-ordination. My hired hands did an exemplary job - and those craftsmen deserve the recognition and reputation for doing so - even if it is 20-years late.

My specialty, at that time, was the designing and making of 'Canadian Fine Furniture'. I had learned the rudiments of this craft from my cabinet-making father, Luther Janna Holton II, and had refined my skills and interest with further self-study and application. By the time I was doing this 'commission' for 'G', aka Gordon, I was, without exaggeration, one of the best 'fine furniture designers' in Canada. I always worked with the best hands I could find to make beautiful 'things'. The revealed chairs in this post, and other items that I produced in the 1990s, attest to that.

'Winter' Chair, The Four Canadian Fireside Chairs by MLH
But, again, life goes on ... I finally left this discipline, after spending 10 months on another high-end commission, when the client ran their hand down the beautifully french-polished and intricately-carved mahogany 16-foot dining room table and asked if it was 'oak' ...

That was it for me. I just lost interest in designing and making 'things' for people who had absolutely no idea what they were getting, or what was involved in the design and crafting process. I soon left the 'business' of designing 'Canadian fine furniture'.

That's not to say that my own interest in fine craftsmanship and good design waned. It did not. I still swoon over a beautifully made object - from any culture or from any era. I am just no longer willing to do it - or sell it. 

In the late 1990s, I started to do other things and developed other marketable skills, like my ever-popular pinhole and photo-collage photography, and, as always, I continued on with my signature paintings and my writing, found all over this site.

'Autumn', Four Canadian Fireside Chairs by MLHolton
So, that's the backstory ... 

The final - and most relevant - reason for releasing this title again - with my name on it - is to DIRECTLY and DELIBERATELY tie this book to 'The Four Canadian Fireside Chairs'.  These four well-made chairs now exist in Time & Space. This book, The Gilded Beaver, intimately explains how they came to be. There is, finally, some faint hope that someday, someone, somewhere will finally 'get it'. It is hoped that a few decorative arts connoisseurs will recognize this #Canadian #design contribution for what it really is ...

There are no other chairs on the planet like this set of four.

The Four Canadian Fireside Chairs are a  fusion of English-French and Inuit IDEAS that place them squarely IN CANADA at the end of the twentieth century. Made of blemish-free hardwood, selected from a private mill in Ancaster, these black walnut chairs should easily last for 300 to 400 years, with, perhaps, a restoration or two on route.

I know, without any doubt, that they are GOOD chairs. They will stand the test of time. In the end, I was happy to have designed and created them. I am now, with this new release - with my name attached - willfully putting them into the broader arena of the DECORATIVE ARTS FROM CANADA at the end of the TWENTIETH CENTURY.

2nd Edtion - E-book -NOW AVAILABLE
Yes, they were designed FOR Gordon, but more importantly, they were done FOR CANADA and our own 'material culture'  heritage. 

I hope you will now consider this revised title, by yours truly. Give the story a read, or even a re-read, knowing now that it is a 'true story'.

Consider what went on, and why. Consider this title knowing that what artists and designers build - as 'cultural artifacts' - comes from inherited and invented narratives that manifest in material form. Yes, we artists 'make things', that not only mark our time on the planet, but we also make things to WITNESS and DOCUMENT the dominant stories of our own times for future generations.

Have a read. Learn more about this grand & beautiful country of ours, Canada, on this amazing planet, Earth.

Now Available as an E-book on Amazon
The Gilded Beaver, Second Edition, 
by Margaret Lindsay Holton





BOOK LAUNCH of The Gilded Beaver by Margaret Lindsay Holton

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Blast from the Past! The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous, Reviewed by V.Cline Barton


To date, I have written three novels: ECONOMIC SEX in 1985,  The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous in 1999 - and my most recent effort, TRILLIUM, released in 2019.

For a quiet Canadian writer working in the boonies, it is a delightful and slightly unnerving experience when a more prolific and socially active American author reviews - and then extols - one's lesser known work.

When that reviewing author then gives that lesser known work  another FIVE star review  - it is hard not to sigh in relief and immense gratitude.

Could any writer ask for more?!?

The reviewing author of my last two novels, Veronica Cline Barton, is a fertile writer of a charming cozy murder series that has her main protagonist, Gemma, bounce back and forth from the States to the United Kingdom. Integral to Gemma's evolving story is Veronica's on-going interest with FAMILY and FORTUNE - but on a royal scale! We intersect on those two points. As #writers, we are both fascinated by the vicisstitudes of FAMILY and FORTUNE in fiction - and real life ... 


Book Review Header on Veronica's Blog

Since the very beginning of human history, family tribes have plotted to not only secure but expand their territories. Growth, let alone survival, has been achieved through numbers. Adding new members to any family invariably increases that family's material wealth and influence. 

The most common method to enhance status and FORTUNE is to 'marry' into a FAMILY of greater means or status than one's own. If family bonds are very thick, the 'ritual' of marriage becomes a strategic move to enhance both wedding parties material wealth and power.

It is only in relatively recent times that LOVE - as a basis for marriage - has gained ground against the plotting traditions of Powerful Families. (Just ask the British Monarchy.)

In Veronica's recent review of my second novel, The Gilded Beaver, she deftly highlights the slow evolution of the willful and creative protagonist, Iris Burdock, as she attempts to navigate the commercial world of FORTUNE

Iris, like so many of her hard-working female contemporaries, operates in the world of commerce without the traditional support of an ambitious or protective FAMILY.

As an independent woman, Iris must evaluate and assess a bachelor who has entered her working realm. 

It is not as straight-forward a business transaction as she initially thinks.

During her on-going assessment of his tastes and his way of life  - and without the wise or interfering counsel of family - Iris must chart her own course. She is eventually forced to ask herself what she really wants: is it FORTUNE? - Or is it really LOVE?

Read Veronica's stellar 5 star review of The Gilded Beaver  > 

https://myamericanalmostroyalcousinseries.com/2020/01/15/veronicas-writersdiary-when-reality-enters-the-fiction-zone/

The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous won the Hamilton Arts Council 'Best Fiction' Award in 1999.
TRILLIUM , my latest novel, was a Finalist for the same award in 2019 ...


Monday, June 1, 2009

'The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous'


Winner of the Hamilton Arts Council 'Best Fiction Award' in 1999, beating out other entries from Random House Canada, M&S, and Knopf Canada ...
‘THE GILDED BEAVER BY ANONYMOUS'

Critical Reviews:

" ... mystery surrounds this erotically charged novel ... the ABC's of Canadian fine furniture design and production ... " Ottawa Citizen

"... read this really extra-ordinary work with great interest ... this novel is very special ..." - Dr.B. Heinzius, Bertelsmann, AG, Munich

" ... like good wine - rich, complex, pleasingly acerbic ... a dance of intellect & eros that expertly unfolds ... and closes with panache..." - Jim Bartley, Globe & Mail, Toronto

"... a psycho-sexual tug of war in the world of design" - Spring Book Review, Globe & Mail, Toronto

"... Novels about the relationship between two brothers, mothers and sons, husbands and wives, or fathers and daughters are common. But the relationship between a fine furniture designer and an imperious client can be just as fraught with tension, drama, comedy, incomprehension and hurt as any family relationship, and this novel proves it. ... Why the 'anonymity'? Because, quotes the author, 'This is a true story'..." - Toronto Star


ONLY 800 Numbered Copies printed in 1999 Collectors First Edition
'THE GILDED BEAVER BY ANONYMOUS'
ISBN: 0-96919362-2-6 Page Count: 218, soft cover
 
LIST: $79.95
(NOW SELLING, 10 years later via antiquarian book dealers @ $125!)


Send Int'l Money Order, including $10 for Shipping & Handling, to:
'The Gilded Beaver'
 ACORN PRESS CANADA
17 Main Street, P.O. Box 1425
Waterdown, Ontario, Canada
L0R 2H0

(Please allow 2 weeks for delivery -
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED.
As of April,  2015 - Only 87 copies left! )









Canadian Fine Furniture by mlh (a few examples)

I have been asked to 'tell a little' about my fine furniture making days ... I suppose a good place to start this 'retrospective' would be to mention the 1996 publication by Carol Soucek King, 'Architects & Designer's Originals'. Frank Gehry, the architect, and I were the only Canadians asked to contribute. Carol was the Fashion Editor at the L.A. Times at the time, and she asked me to supply something for the 'bed' section ...

I had recently completed a commission of a series of children's beds that had hand-carved bed posts - owls & bears. I also did a carved frieze of butterflies & dragonflies for the little girl ...

The following image was one of my first forays into 'decoratively painted' furniture ... a Canadian goose on the back panel hovering over a 'nest of eggs'... Last heard, this piece is now in a collection in Portland, Oregan.

I was often asked to reproduce 'period items' to fit into existing decor. The next piece is 'Quebec' infleunced, and 'distressed' to lend a 'rustic' feel. The carving in the centre is unique. (Sorry for the lousy photo, but that's all I've got of this item now ... )

The next piece was one of my favourites. I use to spend a great deal of time up-north. That 'atmosphere' greatly influenced my choices about what I wanted to amplify in my constructions. The feathers on the drawers and the pine tree silhouette on the cupboard (and copper star insets) where inlaid into the oak using 'marquetry', a wood-working technique near extinction in North America today ... (Again, please excuse the crummy 'shaky' photo, but this is the only image I've got of the piece in it's 'unfinished' state.... )


As time went along I refined these 'natural motifs' and emphasized the intricate delicacy of the wood grain in conjunction with the power of the imagery. In the following instance, a bulrush bouquet highlights this tiger maple & rosewood 'Ladies Dresser' ... The 'Shaker-style' drawer pulls were turned in ebony.

Bigger & better commissions started to come in. The next image shows details from a 14 foot dining table (with 16 complimentary sabre leg dining chairs). The motif I choose for this commission was the trillium, provincial flower for Ontario. The mahogany edging on the table was carved in a recurring trillium pattern and the adjacent trillium marquetry inset was used on the back of all the chairs.

Then the coup de grace, 'The Four Canadian Fireside Chairs'. A fantastic commission, I had carte blanche to fulfill this clients ambitions of grace & grandeur. I focused on the native legend of Sedna, goddess of the North Seas, and imaginatively carved her into the walnut legs of each of the chairs. Then I designed intricate marquetry panels for the back of each chair to represent a season.

Copper was an early trading material from the North. I gilded the two armchairs in copper.

And covered the two side chairs in premium dear hide, retrieved from a hunter near Barrie ... This is the 'autumn chair'. Pheasant lifting off over cornfields under a setting sun ... beneath a recurring image of criss-crossed dear antlers ...



Next up, I had the opportunity to do some speculative work for a gallery show. What follows is the 'Wolf Settee Courting Bench'. A kind of whimsical piece, it sort of epitomizes to me, the EARLY stages of romance where 'space' is kind of critical to romantic evolution ... (The settee is 7 feet long ... ). The bracing beneath the seat is extensive and intricately turned. Beautiful Honduras mahogany, turns like butter ...


Note the wolf head on the settee arms ...

Likely my most ambitious piece, 'Thee Mirror', inspired by my many jaunts to the sea & the ever present majestic beauty of the natural world, I tried to fuse it all into one magnificient whole ... I must have done ok, cuz this piece won First Prize at the International Woodworking Show at the Canadian National Exhbition in 1989, beating out English, French and Italian works. I took home the ribbon with Karl Luber, who did the marquetry work on this item.

Another speculative piece, the following pedestals (one shown of a matching pair) were inspired by the Temagami Provincial Park area in north-eastern Ontario. There was ALOT of buzz at the time about the proposed 'clear cut' logging in the park area ... I wanted to create something that documented that 'DECISION' for future generations. I used maple cones as a recurring motif (see how they drop from the top) and then enfused the slanting sides with a kind of Elizabethan style 'relief' carving. There is something very 'in tune' with Nature that emerged in the Elizabethan period, that hasn't been replicated since. (The Georgian period, though CLOSE, lacked a sense of 'stillness'.) That's a very subjective interpretation I know, but it's how I both 'sense' and 'interpret' things ... . These pedestals were shaped from solid walnut, and now reside with a Toronto collector ...
Here's an example of an earlier piece, a drop-front CD player, using a signature triple-beaded edging detail of layered ebony & padauk ... The base wood is lovely pear and the inserts were made with mahogany 'flame' vaneer. This item was 'french polished' in the 'old school' manner ... thus that lovely patina. Complimentary sofa side tables were added to this commission at a later date.

Again, kind of a fun one, a copper diningroom table. The client was a frequent flyer & car racing enthusiast. He liked 'bolted' metal things ... I obliged with this copper studded copper hammered sheet metal table top ...


Spanning a 15 year period, from 1984 to 2000, I think I produced near 300 items. It was wonderful time, and I don't regret one bit of it. Though, truth be told, it is not a very efficient way to 'make a living'... especially at the level I was producing things ... Fun stuff though and feels like another era now. I do retain drawings of items I would LIKE to make ... like the Nunavut Sideboard, and the Caribou dining table ... but, sigh, I guess those exquisite items will just have to WAIT ...

I may add more items to this list as I find other photos ...

And, for the record, I LEARNED about the fundamentals of FINE wood-working from my late father, Luther Janna Holton. I apprenticed with him. And then, went out on my own ...


.... just found this above image taken at the Carnegie Gallery: me - plus some of dad's work including a very attractive mahogany drop-front desk replete with 'secret compartments', a true-to-form 'Chippendale' mirror with gilding highlights, & a Louis XIV style chair designed & made for 'larger North Americans' by my late father ... Luther Janna Holton, the second ...

.... Photo supplied by Willa W., in 2015. Taken sometime in the early 2000's. MLH perched on her 'Stargazer Garden Bench', designed and licensed to Canadian manufacturer in mid 1990s.  Made in the Philippines, of iroko wood, a dense water-resistant hardwood that changes to a warm gray over time ... Sold throughout North America. A popular item.

UPDATE: January 2017 - Well this is kind of fun. Was roaming around the net and stumbled on the desk & credenza that I designed for Kaufman Furniture of Collingwood, Canada, the 'Signature Series', several decades ago. It was selling on an obscure 'estate liquidation' site. Both sold for the grand sum of $630. Ouch, hurts, (after 43 bids, starting at $1!) - (What a STEAL!!! Seriously!) - Still, very interesting to view the images - and to remember that job. I used mahogany vaneer on solid maple, with 'shaker-style' ebony pulls. Kaufman did a good job crafting my design. It still looks pretty good: contemporary and kind of timeless ... if I say so myself.

Desk & Credenza, Designed by M.L.Holton. Built by Kaufman of Collingwood, Canada.

Details from Desk & Credenza designed by Margaret Lindsay.Holton, Canada






Substantiating paperwork, including 'Certificate of Authenticity', promo sample and letter from Prez of Kaufman.

(Website for that sale - Everything But the House - estate liquidators )
UPDATE: July 2017 - stumbled on this promotional piece that I designed for Dad when we were working together ... the red 'logo' beneath the chair, was, in fact, his signet ring. We did stamp a few of his better items with it.
Dad's promo, designed by yours truly :)
Interested to dive deeper?
Dive deeper into Canadian decorative arts and design via my second novel, The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous, re-released in 2020 to now include the author's true identity, me. This ebook Second Edition explains why the secrecy between designer & client, and includes a factual and fun discourse on the trials and tribulations of 'making something of value' for someone else ...
Get it here > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089T7QJ5B/

Thursday, May 27, 2021

The Gilded Beaver by MLHolton - Extract & Review -


Great shout-out from #author and blogger, Sally G. Cronin of Ireland, for the paperback version of my award-winning Canadian novel, The Gilded Beaver, (2nd Edition)

The Gilded Beaver is a SUPER title to add to #summerreading lists - especially for #DIY #cottage & #lake crowd who have acute interest in #trees, #design and #woodworking ... 

Story is set in #Canada. Have a gander. Order via Amazon 

#literature #novels #writing #readerscommunity #booknerd  #interiordecorating #finefurniture #Canadian #decorativearts



 

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Wonderfully Thought Provoking - The Gilded Beaver, SecondEdition


 A wonderful Amazon Review shout-out! 
Thank you dear readers! 
Plus, a wonderful profile of the title & author - from #Ireland.
 THE GILDED BEAVER - Get it HERE.

     
Author & Fine Furniture Designer, MLHolton
Cover Design - The Gilded Beaver E-book