Filed underOne object
The tramp art heron
A folk-art painting in a layered tramp-art frame, signed and undated.
The Hunt · The Archive
The Archive
The pieces — and the rooms that hold them — that we hunt for.
Founded — Los Angeles · 2026·On file — Forty-three references·Cadence — Added as we go
Reference photographs kept on file. The pieces a room holds, the rooms a piece deserves — the standard a sale has to clear before it earns a place on the list.
Filed under
Most recent · Nº 043
Filed under · Layered hang
The salon wall.
A crystal sack chandelier over a Picasso poster from ’61, a carved Gustavian settee in original cream, a leopard in needlepoint, a Venetian mirror reflecting the dining room beyond. A lifetime of looking, hung on one wall — and the standard a sale has to clear.
Added Mar 2026From the editor’s reference
The index
Forty-two more pieces · Filed by principle, not by date
Filed underOne light, big
The balloon, hung low
A spherical pendant the size of a head over a long dark dining table, two patterned screens above a sideboard of terracotta pots.
Filed underRestraint
Cream, and one note
A linen headboard, an arched alcove, one velvet bolster in moss. The smallest piece of color in the room — and the one your eye keeps going back to.
Filed underTexture, overhead
The fringed canopy
A macramé canopy from the rafters, a baroque mirror, a low coffee table built from a single slab. One good extravagance, and the room stops there.
Filed underKept rough
The reading room
Three olive-velvet chairs at a mahogany table, stacks of books unopened on the floor, plaster left to fall where it falls.
Filed underScale, against tile
Gilt, over checkerboard
An enormous baroque mirror above a delicate Queen-Anne console, a faded Polaroid stuck to the glass.
Filed underOne object
The painted screen
A neoclassical triptych of dancers on canvas, set against a wrought-iron lantern and a black bronze.
Filed underCollected, not curated
Cognac, aged in
An Ib Kofod-Larsen lounge under a long Edwardian portrait. Linen sheers, an oriental rug, a fireplace.
Filed underColor, all the way up
The yellow room
Ochre lime-wash to the cornice, a small oil of a man in a fez, a marble-topped sideboard.
Filed underOld World
The carved chair, against the tile
A 17th-century walnut side chair on cement tile, a still life of onions and a pitcher hung by a striped ribbon.
Filed underOne painting, plain wall
A Modigliani, above the fire
One small portrait centered on a lime-washed chimney, two rush stools, a Picasso monograph face-up on the table.
Filed underLayered, deliberate
The window seat
A skirted daybed under an interior window, toile pillow, rust velvet, a sleeping cat.
Filed underColor, brought in
Tulips, by the fire
A pair of caned Pierre Jeanneret chairs, a paper pendant, a bowl of orange tulips set down to do the work no painting could.
Filed underColor, in the painting
A console, and a Hofmann
A primitive shiplap wall behind a worn console, a brass-bellied lamp, a vivid abstract on the right that does the whole room’s work.
Filed underLight, off-center
The landscape, and the dog
A floor-to-ceiling landscape oil between sheer linen panels, a marble bistro table, a sleeping dog.
Filed underColor, deliberate
A red lampshade, and florals
A green armoire, an old portrait of a child, watercolour florals, a red fringed lampshade on a fluted brass stand.
Filed underPattern, underfoot
The Moroccan bath
A plastered ceiling with a knotted rope chandelier, a sunken stone basin, geometric encaustic tile across the floor.
Filed underColor, brought in
The bar cart, in autumn
A dark side cart with a bourbon and a bottle of amaro, dried celosia and queen anne’s lace above.
Filed underLight, off-center
The suede chair, and the painting that leans
A pair of cognac suede club chairs, an oil portrait propped on the floor, a wicker dome lamp on a carved Moroccan sideboard. The best piece on the ground — the kind of room where the leaning painting is for sale.
Filed underLight, off-center
Suede, and a painting that leans
A De Sede chair beside an oil propped on the floor, a wicker dome lamp, an antique carved chest.
Filed underUsed, not styled
The bathroom shelf
A black shelf above white-tile wainscoting, propped engravings and a small lampshade, a clawfoot tub at the right edge.
Filed underOne painting, head of room
A landscape, above the bed
A carved walnut headboard, a 19th-century landscape centered above, white linens, a Persian rug worn into.
Filed underColor, on every wall
Olive, with sketches
A long farm table on cane Cesca chairs, three nude line drawings between brass sconces, candles lit before anyone arrived.
Filed underUsed, not styled
Brick, plain wall
A heavy primitive console on brick, a copper jar lamp, branch forsythia in a stoneware pot.
Filed underPattern, by repetition
Eight pressed botanicals
Two rows of four, framed identically in walnut, hung above a serpentine-marble bath.
Filed underOne gesture, hung tall
The verdure
A seventeenth-century Aubusson against a chalk-white wall, picture-lit, a Spanish carved sideboard underneath.
Filed underPattern, by repetition
Botanicals, over the wood
A column of nine sepia botanicals in blackened frames over a dark wood cabinet, a stoneware urn of dried alliums, a brass-and-glass pendant.
Filed underService furniture
The working pantry
Glass-fronted oak with original brass pulls, white pitchers behind glass, a striped linen apron on a hook.
Filed underColor, in the corner
A bath, in coral
Hand-poured concrete in a faded coral, brass telephone tap, terracotta tile underfoot and a small still life above.
Filed underDetail, in the dressing
Crystal, on lace
Four cut-glass decanters on a brass-galleried tray, a piece of antique lace beneath, a sepia portrait above.
Filed underMural, in a small room
The stag room
Twin beds in dove blue against a folk-art mural of stags and birds, cement tile underfoot, an iron chandelier above.
Filed underOne piece, kept dark
The carved headboard
A scrolled mahogany headboard against a chalk wall, a single floor lamp leaned in.
Filed underUsed, not styled
The working arch
Spanish-Revival oak under a beamed arch. Twin candle sconces, a smoked-glass bell jar, a portrait that no one chose to match.
Filed underPattern, on pattern
The chintz, under tapestry
A floral chintz sofa with a crimson velvet cushion, a verdure tapestry above, a fully-stacked bookcase to the right.
Filed underLayered, in three centuries
Velvet, beside the bust
A Camaleonda sofa in burnt orange, an apothecary sideboard, a Hellenistic torso under a contemporary canvas.
Filed underStorage, as still life
The trunks, by the bed
Two stacked steamer trunks beside the bed, a pendant Edison bulb low above, leaned portraits on the top.
Filed underSymmetry, hung high
Plates, in pairs
Six painted plates flanking a kitchen doorway, two carved Moroccan chairs beneath, sconces between.
Filed underArchitecture, kept
Green doors, plank floor
Old paneled doors in forest green under a fanlight, a carved bench, a fig in a clay pot.
Filed underLayered, without apology
The wall that won’t stop
Forty paintings hung edge to edge, a wicker pendant the size of a torso, a goldenrod sofa long enough to sit and look.
Filed underFurniture, repurposed
The barrister, as bar
A turn-of-the-century stacking law-book case repurposed for stemware and bottles. An expressionist self-portrait above, two brass candlesticks.
Filed underOld World, soft
Stone, and one drawing
A stone-vaulted alcove, a carved oak chest, a single framed sketch above.
Filed underOne object, in many
A wall of glass
Six shelves of antique stemware in every color found in nature — ruby, smoke, amethyst, amber — on a slim larchwood rack against rough plaster.
A standing collection
The archive is open, and growing.
If you’ve lived with a room worth filing — and you’re willing to let us photograph it — write to us. Members hear about new entries first.