From the Desk of… is a window into the world and workspace of some of ACL’s most stylish friends.
Cultural polymath and sartorial savant, it is safe to say that David Coggins has refined taste. When not fly fishing in Idaho or curating his exquisite blogue Exit Lines, Mr. Coggins can be found writing for Art in America, Men’s Vogue and Interview Magazine.
Mr. Coggins’ Description
A table has to be orderly for me, because I’m easily distracted-I’ll go through everything to keep from working. So keeping things stacked and clean is key. This table was made by a carpenter in Brooklyn based on a Christian Liagre design, and is the right proportions for me. The typewriter is an old Olympia-made in West Germany around 1960. It’s useful because my handwriting is hard for other people to read. There’s no 1 key-you use the lowercase L instead. That strikes me as ingeniously German. The bag on the back of the chair is a Dutch mail bag-it’s heavy canvas and I think they still use them over there. I love walking through Amsterdam and looking in the windows of the apartments. The print on the desk is by Robert Andrew Parker, a longtime contributor to the New Yorker who shows at Davis & Langdale gallery in New York. He makes great prints of colonial English troops-a favorite is of a member of the 14th Lancers. The book on the left is Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant, a 1960 edition-I buy any Anthony Powell book I can find even if I already own it. His series of novels, A Dance to the Music of Time, is near and dear. The Gentleman’s Companion by Charles Baker, Jr. is from 1946, and serves as a promise that I can have ‘an exotic drink’ if I make it to 5pm. The pens are essentially props-they remind me that I’ve got to get back to writing, which means turning on the computer, and that’s a whole new world of distractions.
More From the Desk of… can be seen here.
The desks return! I love this feature. Well done, sir.
my favourite series on acl!
the desk / table is perfect. the mail bag is terrific. love robert andrew parker’s watercolours.
Excellent segment. What exactly is that sparkling thing on the wall? I’m thinking wall phone.
Charles Bixx
(Foiled again.)
http://hbemis.wordpress.com
Nice desk. Reminds me of me.
Except, I find my MacBook and JVC Wood-Cone Bookshelf Sound system essential additions!
Love the Anthony Powell books and military prints.
I have three typewriters but only use computers to write. Having read this it seems like a gross error.
Tremendous, thank you.
For Charles Bixx:
It’s an intercom for the front door that partly works. Marlon Brando lived in this building when he moved to New York, so it’s nice to imagine him buzzing upstairs when he was locked out.
My, what an inspiring work space.
i see a jack spade tote. tasteful
[QUOTE]”The bag on the back of the chair is a Dutch mail bag-it’s heavy canvas and I think they still use them over there.”[UNQUOTE]
The Dutch postal services actually still do. Although the state-owned PTT was privatised and the name disappeared from the streets a longtime ago one still sees bags as seen on the photograph now and then.
Don
THE NETHERLANDS