Just add water!

Architectural table.

One of the best antique architect’s tables seen in recent years goes on the block tomorrow, April 20, at Sotheby’s Paris. Known as a table à la Tronchin—after Théodore Tronchin, an unconventional 18th-century Swiss physician who advised a sluggish aristocrat “to write at a raised desk, while resting against a tall stool”—it is the work of the greatest ébéniste of the Louis XVI period, Jean-Henri Riesener, who in this instance combined ebony and mahogany with gilt-bronze mounts. Closed, the Tronchin table gives little hint of its actual purpose; fully opened, however, it looks something like an aircraft carrier, with two sliding surfaces for holding candlesticks, a frieze drawer for storage, and the ubiquitous racheting work surface floating above it all. The table’s twin was once owned by the French royal family. Sotheby’s estimates it will bring between €25,000 and €50,000 ($33,180–$66,360).

Rustic kitchen

In his restoration of Château de Sailhant, architect Joseph Pell Lombardi installed a La Cornue range to update the 19th-century kitchen, which is outfitted with period copper cookware and kerosene lamps. The floor is paved with six-inch-thick volcanic stone, which references the volcanic Auvergne region of central France, where the home is located.
Photo: Jaime Ardiles-Arce.

The walls and ceiling in the kitchen of a log cabin–style home in the foothills of Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains are clad with salvaged wood. Interior designer Suzanne Kasler decorated the space with a pair of 18th-century French still lifes and a 19th-century English-oak rack.
Photo: Jeff Herr.

Designer Russell Groves converted a 19th-century barn that had been moved from Canada to Connecticut into a 15-room house. The kitchen’s modern appliances and zinc-and-marble countertops contrast with the barn’s original wood beams, posts, and flooring.
Photo: Scott Frances.

Architect Gordon Pierce conceived an informal ranch house for a couple in Colorado; Elissa Cullman designed the interiors. A muted color scheme is used in the kitchen, where wood finishes dominate.
Photo: David O. Marlow.

Antique beams crisscross a Nantucket kitchen designed by Karin Blake and the Nantucket Architecture Group. Painted diamonds span the wood floor, and the counters are butcher block.
Photo: David O. Marlow.

Designer Linda Warren Simon added a graphic stripe of checkered tile to the kitchen of a house in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, by architect Gabor Goded.
Photo: David O. Marlow.

The kitchen of an 18th-century farmhouse in Tuscany, remodeled by architect Peter Kurt Woerner, features a hood framed with antique beams and a bold stone floor.
Photo: Barbel Miebach.

In a 200-year-old barn that she transported to coastal Rhode Island, designer Ellen Denisevich-Grickis created an eclectic kitchen setting: Rustic beams mix with a vibrant Shaker-style island, Murano-glass chandelier, and Viking stainless-steel appliances. The concrete floors are embedded with chips of mirror, mother-of-pearl, abalone shell, and sea glass.
Photo: Richard Mandelkorn.

Architect Howard J. Backen built a dream home in Napa Valley for the owners of Diamond Mountain Vineyard. The spacious kitchen is at one end of a vaulted pavilion flanked by covered porches with sliding glass doors. The kitchen is separated from the living area by an antique baking table from Ireland.
Photo: Erhard Pfeiffer.

Solex

Solex was a French manufacturer of carburetors and the powered bicycle VéloSoleX.
The Solex company was founded by Marcel Mennesson and Maurice Goudard to manufacture vehicle radiators. These were fitted to several makes of early cars including Delaunay-Belleville and buses of the Paris General Omnibus company.
After World War I the radiator business went into decline and the company bought the rights to the carburettor patents of Jouffret and Renée and named them Solex after their business.

Solex carburetors were until the mid 1980s used on many European cars including Volkswagen, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Audi, Ford, BMW, Citroen, Opel, Simca, Saab, Renault, Peugeot, Lancia, Lada, Mercedes Benz, Volvo and Porsche. Solex carburetors have been made under licence by a number companies including the Mikuni company of Japan who supplied them to auto makers including Toyota, Mitsubishi and Suzuki as well as to various Japanese motorcycle makers. Mikuni originally entered into a licensed manufacturing agreement with Solex in 1960 and further developed many of Solex’s original designs.
The Solex brand is now owned by Magneti Marelli. The original Solex company changed its name in 1994 to Magneti Marelli France and on May 31, 2001, Magneti Marelli France partially bought its assets (including the trademark SOLEX) from Magneti Marelli Motopropulsion France S.A.S.

The Vélosolex has a small 49 cc motor mounted above the front wheel. Power is delivered via a small ceramic roller that rotates directly on the front wheel by friction to the tire.
The first prototype of a VeloSolex was created in 1941 and used regular bicycle frame such as those under the “Alcyon” brand and were powered by a 45 cc engine developed by Solex. VELOSOLEX were produced commercially and sold starting 1946 with a 45 cc engine without clutch, then later with a 49 cc engine.

More than 8 million were eventually sold, mostly in Europe. It was also constructed under license in many countries. Today the Velosolex is again manufactured in France. The trademark “VELOSOLEX” is the property of Velosolex America, LLC which markets the Velosolex motorized bicycle worldwide.