For Kevin Preston

[Versatronic]

Kevin, I have tried numerous times to respond to your email but it bounces back to me every time. Have you changed your email address?

Anyway, you asked about any new Heywood Wakefield pieces that I have acquired. Well as a matter of fact, I spent yesterday setting up my latest piece. One of the few items I had left in my house that wasn't vintage was this entertainment center in my bedroom (although it fooled most people because of the style.

 

[Versatronic]

After

So, finally after all this time, I got the holy grail of Wakefield collecting and replaced the entertainment center with a HW Room Divider. Now I am broke. But what the "hey". It's such a beautiful piece.

Let me know what your email situation is.

 

[gansky1]

Beautiful addition to your H-W collection! Now you need a vintage Marantz receiver ;-)

Are those lamps on the sides of the TV?

 

[Versatronic]

Oh,

And yes, I have a pink bedroom. It's a fifties house, what do you expect? It don't mean nothing.

 

[Versatronic]

Not lamps

Hi Mr. Gansky. No, actually, those are speakers on either side of the TV. Some old 50's speakers, but believe it or not, they really sound pretty darn good! Just a tad, and I mean a tad, tinny. Could use just a tad more bass response. But really, I'm perfectly happy with them.

And I would love a Marantz receiver. Although I'd probably put that in my tiki lounge where I do my music listening. Maybe I need two.

 

[gansky1]

I suspected they might be speakers! What brand are they? Too cool!!

I have a couple of working Marantz units - a 2230 in the office/computer room and a 2270 that needs a little cleaning and a new power switch. I love the sound from them on my vintage Advent speakers.

 

[Versatronic]

Leonhardt Engineering Co.

Well, I have vintage Bose 901s in my tiki lounge and they come with a unit that is supposed to equalize them properly but you're supposed to run the equalizer through the tape input or something and I can't do it with my more modern receiver. I think I actually need a more "primitive" unit to run the equilizer properly. I've been on the lookout for an old Marantz or similar unit at flea markets and stuff but no luck so far.

These speakers were made by Leonhardt Engineering Co. Never heard of them.

I used to have a Marantz turntable. It was a beautiful piece.

 

[frigilux]

Those are beautiful pieces, Mike! Seriously, I think you should photograph your entire home and publish it in coffee-table book form. You have the most consistently interesting, beautifully retro house I've ever (well, never) seen!

 

[kevinpreston8]

Mike....

Looks like you have a wonderful piece in original Wheat (or is that Champange) finish.

The room divider is a holy grail. My favorite HW store has only had two in the past several years. She let me pay for mine on time and had several offers for it while it sat in her storeroom waiting for me. It is refinished blonde.

Left hand door was removed by myself to keep my three year old from opening and closing it. Oddly, he leaves the other side alone. Sorry for the clutter on it but you get the idea.

 

[kevinpreston8]

Here's something else you might like

I am a king bed aficionado. Even when sleeping alone, I love a king. Guess growing up with parents that always had one, I felt that when I moved out, I must have a king!

Anyways, about two years ago I came across this super rare "king" headboard. It's the M790 "Double Utility Headboard" and was obviously setup for two twins pushed together. Since two twins=width of an Eastern King, voila, King Headboard. Please ignore the ugly sheet.

The flash on this shot makes this look like a not so good original finish, but it is in fact a very nice redone blonde.

 

[kevinpreston8]

email....

Hmmm, this is worrisome. My email is [email protected] I have not changed it. I cannot imagine why your email would be coming back. Please try again and let me know if it does not work. I have been getting other mail.

 

[Versatronic]

Champagne

Hey Kevin, you certainly have the rarest of the rare as far as Wakefield goes. That headboard is rare. I don't know if this is true, but someone once told me that the reason the king size headboard is so rare is that they were made and sold to hotels and motels, not the general public. So when one turns up, it came out of an old Howard Johnson's or something. Again, not sure that's true, but it sounds plausible. I know Wakefield did create some bedroom sets specifically for the hotel/motel market. That is a beauty!

My Room Divider is actually a Champagne finish. It's the original finish and in pretty darn good shape. Just a light scratch here or there but nothing major at all.

Thanks for the pictures! Hey, I forwarded an email to you so we'll see what happens. If you do get it, you can see the various dates I sent the email to you and it bounced.

Mr. Frigilux, thanks so much for your kind words.

 

[kevinpreston8]

Mike,

Did you get my email?

 

[drmitch]

A very impressive collection, Mike! (drooling)

 

[Versatronic]

Got it

Got it Kevin. Everything seems to be A-OK now.

Dr. Mitch, I do have a lot of Wakefield furniture. But Kevin is the one who has the best of the best. I'm just trying to catch up to him.

 

[kevinpreston8]

Mike...

I thought you already passed me up!

One additional note---don't know if I told you this before but my office at home is pink.

Not pepto pink, but a super light pink with that "sponge treatment" of a light grey in it, not sure what you call the technique, but really well done.

Of course, when we first moved in, I was going to paint it immediately. But as time wore on, I found the color to be very relaxing and pleasant, so it stayed!

 

[Versatronic]

Yeah right

Well, based on our previous conversations, I probably have more wakefield furniture overall than you do. Almost every room in my house has wakefield furniture. But, you certainly have more of the most-sought-after and hard-to-find pieces. The room divider, the bed, that flip-down desk...those are some of the best and hardest-to-find pieces. The "power pieces". And I've always been jealous of your collection. The room divider is kind of my entry into the upper ecshelon of wakefield collecting. I'm going to have to get a second job, though, if I'm going to get more of this primo stuff. Ouch.

 

[kevinpreston8]

The problem I have...

is that my dealer extends me no interest, informal credit. Right now, I just finished paying off a HW "blanket chest". Once its refinished and recovered, and I go to pick it up with 0 balance, I KNOW there will be some weird piece in her showroom or in storage that I must have.

This has been going on for years. Our old house was so overfilled with furniture that I was wrapping the lesser pieces up in plastic and storing them in a shed in the backyard. Here we don't have that problem, but I don't want to load the house up so that it's cluttered like the old one. So, the pieces selected from this point forward will only be very special pieces that will fit in perfectly.

The blanket chest deal I credit to my wife. She bought it sight unseen. It is, I believe, the C3739 "Blanket Bench" from the Niagara group.

In a few years, we plan to add onto our house "family room". No HW couches here--I will get the standard super comfortable new style leather overstuffed in a tasteful model, go along with the widescreen TV and my need to nap on something other than my office chair. You can bet thought that there will be HW accent pieces scattered throughout. So the madness will go on.

 

[Versatronic]

Ahh yes, the blanket chest...

I even forgot about that piece. Man.

The last email I sent you bounced. I'd say you have a problem with your ISP. I'm surprised no one else has said anything to you before this. I don't think your problem is sending eamil, but receiving it. Your host seems to be quite unreliable. Below is some of the error message verbiage I get.

Reporting-MTA: dns; comcast.net
Arrival-Date: 8 Sep 2006 10:41:05 +0000

Final-Recipient: rfc822; [email protected]
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.7 Unable to contact host for 1 days,
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; Persistent Transient Failure: Delivery time expired
Last-Attempt-Date: 8 Sep 2006 10:41:05 +0000