Talisman

Housed in a spacious Art Deco garage in Chelsea, this is a vintage furniture boutique like no other.

Visiting Talisman is a bit of a pilgrimage: secreted in the hinterlands of Chelsea, at the farthest end of the snaking King’s Road, it’s somewhere you’d go for a leisurely afternoon’s mooch rather than a quick whip-round.  But it’s definitely worth the effort: this new vintage design emporium is one of the most interesting of its kind to open in London for some time, and looks set to push the craze for mid-20th century Modern design to the next level.  Its creator, Ken Bolan, champions little-known gems of American design (such as glam Seventies furniture by Karl Springer) and favours an offbeat mix of styles, displaying Sixties wall sculptures from Los Angeles cheek-by-jowl with Art Deco cabinets, 17th-century mirrors and curios such as salvaged religious sculptures and model ships.

Talisman’s home is a sprawling Thirties building, formerly a garage, saved from demolition last year.  Now restored, its three floors are conceived as a gallery space, with a central glass atrium acting as a showcase for antique garden statuary.  Star items are combined in stylish room sets against painted walls, suggesting how pieces from different eras might work together and which colours set them off to their best advantage.  ‘More and more people are creatively mixing styles and periods’, says Ken.  ‘Talisman spans several centuries, and we like to experiment by displaying old with new’.

Happily, it’s not all expensive stuff: although the odd piece of sculpture sells for a six-figure sum, you can buy a lovely lamp or accessory for as little as £100.  But what are the best things to look for?  These are Ken’s hot buys:

• ‘20th-century American furniture – a current favourite piece is a 1958 rosewood table by Florence Knoll, founder of Knoll International’.
• ‘Mid-20th-century pieces in Lucite, a chunky, glossy clear plastic: it’s versatile and works in minimal or decorative settings’.
• ‘Statement lighting in bronze and nickel by Rembrandt Lamps, a Chicago-based company founded in the Sixties’.
• ‘Stunning abstract metal wall pieces by Curtis Jere, a sculptor who was working in Los Angeles in the Sixties and Seventies’.