'I recommend vodka' – #112

Every couple of months, someone replies to ask why I don’t put prices next to the products.

And I get it. It looks like laziness, but it’s not.

Prices anchor you.

If you see “340€” before you’ve looked at a chair, you stop looking and start deciding whether you would buy it. The chair has become a purchase before it has had a chance to be interesting.

I do mention prices when they are part of the story. This week, a €4.50 greeting card sits next to a bar cabinet that probably costs more than my first car. That range is exactly why they belong together.

The products in this newsletter aren’t competing with each other, and I’m not ranking them by what looks like good value.

The only question is whether something is worth knowing about. If it is and you want to know what it costs, click it.

The price is usually on the maker’s site. (Occasionally, you have to request it, which I never find especially encouraging ;)

The second every item in a list comes with a price, the list becomes a shopping cart.

This is not a shopping cart.

So here are five things worth knowing about.

If you’re new around here: Every week, I share 5 of the nicest products from Europe I’ve discovered in the past 7 days.

I scout, you explore.

With love 🌞
Jakob

P.S.: Missed the birthday edition last week? The sling bag from Labo Mono was the most-clicked product.

There are few occasions that cannot be improved by receiving the words "I recommend Vodka" in the mail. Martin Z. Schröder prints this €4.50 card in Berlin using lead letters from the Wiener Grotesk typeface of 1912 and an Art Nouveau printing block made from copper-plated lead. It comes with a lined envelope and is available from the very good R.S.V.P. stationery shop in Berlin.

And if I ever order hand-printed business cards, Schröder's workshop is where I'd go.

Lounge.60 is a drinks cabinet inspired by Italian interiors of the 1960s and 70s. It is handmade in Italy with dark walnut interiors, solid Canaletto walnut drawers, thin steel legs, and a custom stainless-steel ice bucket. The outside can be lacquered in any Pantone color, this one is Verde Milano. Each cabinet is numbered and can carry its owner's name. Buying one also gets you into the Lounge.60 Owners’ Club, for people who take hospitality, design, and the ritual of making a drink unusually seriously.

The Ocean Bowl by Brighton-based STUDIO82 looks like a wave that has been stopped just before it folds over. Each one is made by hand, so the curves and color pattern vary slightly from bowl to bowl. It is sold as a decorative object rather than serious tableware, but should be very good at holding keys, jewelry, or absolutely nothing.

Karlen's Oskar combines a round mirror with an angular little shelf for the things you otherwise spend five minutes looking for before leaving home. The Czech studio makes it from plywood in blue, red, dark green, or a multicolored version, and can also adapt the dimensions or color if you ask. It arrives flat-packed, but requires only two screws rather than a free weekend and a degree in furniture assembly.

Semper & Adhuc builds new watches around old mechanical movements that might otherwise have disappeared. It began with watchmaker Colin de Tonnac collecting orphaned mechanical movements as a student, then restoring them and building new French-made watches around them. The Instantanée LIP is the idea in its clearest form: a hand-wound LIP R100 made in Besançon between 1958 and 1970, restored and placed inside a new 37mm steel case with a French-made dial, hands, and leather strap. A small opening in the back lets you watch its fifty-year-old heart keep going.