mantel +PLATE RAIL
Traditional mantel displays include travel photos in frames; pottery; candlesticks; vases with or without flowers; leatherbound books; framed art tile; antique ceramics; smalls such as boxes, glassware, silver or pewter; and even finds from nature—a bird’s nest, pinecones, seashells. Whatever hangs on the wall above becomes part of the display, so choose something related (by time period or frame color, for example) and include it in the balance of the whole. On a plate rail, consider majolica, ceramics or pottery, copper platters, and teacups. Object clusters interrupted by empty space often works better than objects placed at regular intervals around the room. Experiment: it’s easy to move things or even change it up by season.
The number-one rule in display: Pull objects together. Don’t scatter them around so they lose impact and (gasp) become clutter. “If you put a number of similar objects together, something magical can happen. One is nice, two is better, and three is a collection,” writes John Phifer Marrs, a well-known interior designer and antiquarian who is based in Dallas, in his new book Interiors for Collectors.
A “collection” comprises various objects that have something in common, whether that be material or type (clay vases), color (jadeite green), age or style (Aesthetic Movement smalls), motif (dragonflies), or shape (cubic). Pulling together objects for a display is step one. Step two is arrangement.
For more than a handful of objects, create a dynamic arrangement employing vertical and horizontal, foreground and background, and varying heights. Colors may be grouped together or mixed with an eye to overall balance.
Symmetry is a key concept, especially for display of formal objects. But one side (of the cabinet, shelf, vignette) need not be a mirror image of the other. Symmetry is about balance, so, in visual heft, two smaller objects equal one larger object placed at the other side of the arrangement. In the photo of the early mantel at right, for example, the platter and candle on one end balance the flower arrangement on the other. The painting above is part of the arrangement; note that a wide inverted V is formed by a line running from one end of the mantelshelf, to the top of the painting, and back to the other end of the shelf.
Vignettes on a tabletop or in a large cabinet are more three
dimensional than linear. Try varying the heights, using nicely bound books as a pedestal if necessary, in triangle-shaped layouts. Arrange objects in groups of three or five, never in even numbers.
A collection becomes meaningful with context. A group of pretty vases may suggest a style and era. Arranged on a desk of similar vintage near curtains of the same period, the vases are part of the story of the room. Then again… consider the feeling of a collection. Transferware plates may look better in a bedroom papered in toile, rather than in a modern kitchen. Older houses just beg for the display of collectibles, on mantels and plate rails and in antique cabinets. You can add a narrow shelf, too, above a door or window header in a high-ceilinged room. A collection can line a wide hallway. Quilts can hang over the stair rail at a landing. Wall arrangements display plates, paintings, objects set on corbels, etc.
Finally: Many collectibles are breakable. Protect objects from minor earthquakes—or a slammed door. Museum putty (aka earthquake putty) invisibly and reversibly bonds stemware and pottery vases to the shelf. A cabinet may be secured through the back to studs in the wall. (If maiming the cabinet is undesirable, a Velcro strap can secure the cabinet back to a bolt into studs.) Mating strips of Velcro also act as backup to the hanger when used behind paintings. A large ceramic pot may be steadied if a bag of sand is placed inside. Some collectibles, of course, have requirements for temperature and humidity. Look online for companies specializing in museum-level display cases.