A Panorama of Design Products

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This article is part of our Design special section about innovative surfaces in architecture, interiors and products.

Love’s bonds can be delicate yet feel constraining and require hard work to maintain. How better to express all that than by slicing paper into handmade greeting cards, with whorls that can be pulled up to form gossamer cages for images of lovebirds, bouquets, engagement rings, or even rodents?

The cards, known to fans as cobwebs or beehives, became popular in the 1800s. Some will be for sale March 16-17 at the Ephemera Society of America’s annual fair at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Old Greenwich, Conn. Eclectibles, a local dealer, is bringing a piece made in 1817 (and priced at $2,400), with watercolors of a calico cat on the cobweb’s surface and two anxious mice inside. Nothing is known about its maker, Eleanor Green, who signed and dated her work.

Sheryl Jaeger, the co-owner of Eclectibles, said watching it open brought “a real sense of wonder.” A video of the cat in motion will be shown on site, so visitors will not be tempted to pull the string of the delicate piece themselves.

Nancy Rosin, an expert on valentines who helps the Metropolitan Museum of Art catalog its collection, said the card’s feline imagery was unusual. For Eleanor Green, did the cat perhaps represent herself, or a confidant?

“We can read all kinds of messages into it,” Ms. Rosin said. She added that Ms. Green laboriously cut the paper, noting that it seems that for some cobweb makers, “love was all-empowering.” ephemerasociety.org — EVE M. KAHN

When did athletic shoes turn into collectibles? True sneakerheads have been scouting rare treasures for decades, but in July 2019, when Sotheby’s sold a pair of 1972 Nikes for $437,500 at its first dedicated sneaker auction, the shoes became an asset class to reckon with.

The auction of Important Sneakers and Modern Collectibles at Sotheby’s in Paris on March 14 will include a pair of Nikes designed in collaboration with (and signed by) the rapper MF Doom, who died in 2020. The estimated price is 5,000 to 10,000 euros (about $5,424 to $10,849). Other lots will feature objects that, like sneakers, fall at the intersection of high fashion, pop culture and sports, such as a Louis Vuitton foosball table and a limited-edition sculpture Lady Gaga designed to enfold a bottle of Dom Pérignon champagne.

But would anyone actually wear sneakers with such a rare provenance and hefty price? Zaki Vanderlip, a 26-year-old specialist in streetwear for Sotheby’s, said it all depended on the collector and shoes. Some buyers will lace up, say, a pair of Virgil Abloh Nikes, of which only 200 were ever made.

“The average price was somewhere around $150,000 per pair,” Mr. Vanderlip said. “Of course, everyone thought no one would wear these but, lo and behold, I’ve seen them around.” sothebys.com — SARAH ARCHER

In 1995, when the super designer Philippe Starck unveiled a toilet brush called Excalibur, the news was reported in a front-page article in the Home section of The New York Times. The brush, so named because its handle resembled that of a sword (which users pulled from a base), found its way into museum design collections before its manufacturer, Heller, discontinued it in 2006.

But like a production of “Camelot,” Excalibur was ever ripe for revival. In 2022, John Edelman, the former head of Design Within Reach, bought Heller, and is now reissuing the brush.

“We had requests for this product from all over the world,” he said.

Reached in Paris, Mr. Starck, 75, said he was thrilled. “It’s a very nice reward for me,” he said. “When you work with honesty, humility and fantasy, you hope it will be well liked. When you help a person with the humblest object of the day to clean their toilet, for me it was very important. It was an obsession.”

The new Excalibur will be produced in off-white, light gray, chocolate and light yellow.

It has a $100 price tag, which Mr. Starck declined to discuss. “I don’t know the price,” he said. “For me, everything is too expensive.” hellerfurniture.com — ARLENE HIRST

A kaleidoscope of tulips blooms in spring on Polly Nicholson’s land in southwest England, the base for her organic cut flower business Bayntun Flowers. Her new book, “The Tulip Garden: Growing and Collecting Species, Rare and Annual Varieties” (Phaidon), shares how she mixes new and pedigreed types of what she calls an “utterly bewitching flower.”

Nearly 20 years ago, when her family moved to the property, she planted tulip bulbs as what she describes as a “spontaneous shortcut” to fill beds. Then she delved into the flowers’ back stories. Some had originated a millennium ago in the Middle East and Asia and are shown in old master paintings and Ottoman tiles. She also seeks out recent experiments, in shades of palest pink or deepest indigo. The book details all aspects of the plants, whether “mottled, undulating leaves,” or crinkled petals with “a freakish, feathery appearance.”

She fertilizes her soil with organic seaweed and sprinkles it with chili powder to fend off squirrels. She reassures readers that, “if a combination really jars you” — a bed’s colors, shapes, and textures seem cacophonous — it should be seen as “a temporary aberration,” destined to last just one spring. “And you may even come to love it,” she added. “Every garden needs a bit of bad taste.” phaidon.com — EVE M. KAHN


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