Key Points
As Edward Behrens, editor of Apollo art magazine, says: Its about owning and projecting an aesthetic that you want people to know you are part of, even if it has nothing to do with who you are...
Once confined to the pages of Architectural Digest and Elle Decor, stealth wealth shelf #inspo is even cropping up on the high street see Mango and Soho Home, La Redoute and the Howdens catalogue, which all feature semi-bare shelves and empty vessels..
Behrens isnt so sure: The phenomenon of manufacturers mass producing beautiful things that people showed in their homes is as old as time, he says, citing Wedgwood plates as an early example..
He describes the current crop as production line ceramics given the trappings of exclusivity, so that they seem even more desirable.. Treating a vase as a purely aesthetic object rather than, say, a vase, is part of the problem, says vintage curator Sasha Wilkins..
I just didnt think it would come for what I make.. Natalie Sytner, who runs Bettina, an Italian handmade ceramics company, agrees: I worry that you might see something online, like it, but then after seeing the item another five times get bored, chuck it out and move on to the next thing, she says.. Synter painstakingly sources her pieces from Italian craftspeople, and tends to sell things with a run of under 60 to avoid overexposure..
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