THE WASHINGTON POST • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
4 DC
District
L OCAL LIVING
White House takes a shine to ceramicist’s luxe lamps by Jura Koncius When New York ceramicist
Christopher Spitzmiller learned that a pair of his blue lamps had been chosen to light up the Oval Office in its recent makeover, he thought back to his stint as a White House intern in 1995. “I worked in the social office during the Clinton administra- tion, when the White House was bringing in pieces of American craft from the Renwick and other places,” says Spitzmiller. “I re- member thinking at the time, ‘Wow, how amazing to be able to make something like that,’ never imagining it could be me.” Spitzmiller’s handmade Patricia lamp in Prussian blue is part of his line of 50 shapes in 45 vibrant glazes priced at $550 to $2,700. The Patricia was chosen by Oba- ma decorator Michael S. Smith to flank two sofas in his Oval Office redo. The bluish-green table lamps with their gilded turned maple bases, solid brass fittings and off-white vellum shades add one of the few notes of color in the subdued beige-on-beige room. The redecoration was unveiled last week before the president’s address to the nation on Iraq. No taxpayer funds were used to pay for the new sofas, modern coffee
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Photo gallery See more photos of Christopher Spitzmiller’s work, plus other images of the redecorated Oval Office, with this story.
Chat Thursday at 11 a.m. Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, co-founder of the Apartment Therapy group of blogs, joins staff writers Jura Koncius and Terri Sapienza for our weekly online Q&A about decorating and household advice.
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Christopher Spitzmiller’s lamps flank President Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the newly redecorated Oval Office. The Prussian blue lamps lend a hint of color to the mostly neutral office.
table or the Spitzmiller lamps, which sell for $2,295 apiece. It was financed through the non- profit White House Historical As- sociation through a contribution from the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Patricia’s columnar shape is not Spitzmiller’s best-known design. That would be the gourd-shaped lamps he has been designing
since the 1990s, which continue to inspire a host of knockoffs. “Peo- ple identify with them because they are body-shaped and visually very interesting,” he says. “It’s ac- tually a very old Chinese shape and represents fertility and good luck.”
Spitzmiller’s first foray into presidential decor began before the present administration. Hilla-
ry Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush bought his lamps from Deb- orah Gore Dean, whose George- town shop used to carry them. “Unless you see the workmanship and the handmade quality of the designs in person, it is hard to un- derstand why they are so good,” says Dean, explaining the lamps’ luxury prices. “He takes classic forms and glazes them over and
over again and hand-gilds each base. This is a very, very good lamp.” Spitzmiller’s line is avail- able locally through And Beige in Adams Morgan. Spitzmiller, 39, comes from a region known for craftsmanship: East Aurora, N.Y., the home of El- bert Hubbard, a founder of the early-20th-century Arts and Crafts movement. After Spitzmill- er graduated from St. Lawrence University, he studied ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design and in London. In 1995 he moved to Washington for his White House gig. He started making plates and lamps at a studio in the Jackson Art Center near Dumbar- ton Oaks and taught ceramics at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. One of his big breaks came, he says, when Georgetown designer Thomas Pheasant or- dered three pairs of lamps. In 1999, Spitzmiller moved his work- shop to New York.
Other Spitzmiller lamps are found in the Obama private quar- ters, the ceramicist confirmed. His status lamps also shine in oth- er high-profile spaces. Both Oprah and Margaret Russell, the new editor of Architectural Digest, illu- minate their offices with his work.
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