Designed for value
PHILADELPHIA – What do a tea kettle, a toilet brush, and a trash can have in common? If they’re award-winning designs by Michael Graves, Philippe Starck and Karim Rashid, they’re antiques of the future, says a new book with that title by Philadelphia design maven Lisa Roberts.
A former architect and product designer, Roberts began seeing high-design, mass-produced contemporary products as potential collectibles 25 years ago. Since then, she’s amassed a collection of more than 300 objects, many of which are on display in her home.
Seventy-two of those objects are featured in “Antiques of the Future” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $29.95), whose lusciously photographed format is high on witty design itself. Among the selections are fly swatters, cheese graters, dust pans and tape dispensers, as well as Peter Max’s limited-edition bottle designs for AriZona iced tea, Rashid’s curvaceous detergent bottle for Method Products, and Jonathan Ives’ iMac G3 computer. Designer Josh Owen gets the nod for his clever, portable XOX table, whose base fits into slots on the top.
What makes a certain plastic watering can or portable heater an antique of the future, likely to go up in value after it goes out of production?
Roberts, daughter of Comcast founder Ralph Roberts and a longtime champion of Collab, the group that supports the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s contemporary-design collection, has a few criteria: An object must have been designed by a renowned designer or architect, exhibited in a museum, or included in a museum’s permanent collection, won awards, and/or been widely published.
For aspiring antiques-of-the-future collectors, Roberts also offers tips (buy one to use and one to keep in the original packaging, always keep your receipts) and suggestions on where to shop and what to read, along with lists of manufacturer and designer Web sites.
Among her most recent future-antiques finds: A set of collapsible strainers and funnels by designer Boje Estermann and the Plus Minus Zero humidifier, available in five colors.
“It looks just like a doughnut, and it works beautifully,” she says.