Imeet Amos Goldreich and his team inside a tiny, modern showroom studio at The Wax Building in Shoreditch, and it feels like I’ve been invited to a friend’s stylish apartment. I’m here to look at the collection of furniture and jewellery from a newly established company, Tamart.
The studio location alone certainly bolsters their credentials for authenticity, especially as they officially launched at the prestigious Milan furniture fair – the Salone del Mobile – in April 2024.
I have a fairly healthy level of cynicism when it comes to brands with loud claims of history and legacy. Tamart is a company that thankfully doesn’t need to shout; rather, it humbly whispers. It is essentially a love letter between two extraordinary people who lived extraordinary lives.
I’m looking at rediscovered and reimagined mid-century design and pure creative expression created by the modernist creative and polymath couple, Tamar de Shalit and Arthur Goldreich. It’s been curated and brought up to date by their son Amos, himself an established, award-winning architect. The products – and the stories with them – are breathtaking.
Amos Goldreich with the Central Stool in solid black stained ash, a must have piece from the collection.
Love and Truth
Amos’s parents died just 18 months apart from each other after serious illness. His love for them is palpable when he talks about their lives and work, “It was an incredibly emotionally overwhelming experience to discover and delve into their archives. I was overcome with sadness, longing, wonder and a powerful sense of connection.”
He describes being partially aware of his parents’ work while growing up, but it was only after their passing that he truly grasped the extent of their achievements: “With the help of a friend, an architectural historian who was also a former student of my father, we began to unravel the depth of their oeuvre.
The quality, significance and relevance of their work began to dawn on me only then. I felt that this discovery marked the beginning of something meaningful I just had to pursue.”
And it’s this genuine sense of delight in that discovery and Amos’s ability to see his parents’ work not through the eyes of a museum custodian but of a creative interpreter, that sets this whole collection apart from other design reissues.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING: the original visual sketched by Tamar de Shalit with technical pen on tracing paper can be viewed at the Tamart showroom. Prints are now available, which pair beautifully with the furniture collection.
Modernist investment
There are beautifully upholstered armchairs, sleek dining and coffee tables, ottomans and more, but it’s the Central Stool that really catches my eye.
It was designed by de Shalit during her tenure as a student at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts – now Central St Martins – during the 1950s. The team have updated the three-legged, half-moon design to function as a table or stool, adding concealed magnets; crafted from a single slab of oiled oak or ash, two can be paired up to create a circular form as well.
It’s an intuitive, beautiful design that will be a collector’s item in years to come. This heirloom-of-the-future piece typifies the collection and creative ethos at large.
The Tamart showroom also doubles as an archive with a selection of drawings, photographs and original products rather modestly displayed in old architectural drawing cabinets. I hold the original stool – made some 75 years ago – marvelling at its patina and weight, looking over the original construction drawings, drafted by hand. The new version is just as tactile.
The Highgate Chair is another absolute must-have of this collection. A rather fabulously proportioned and crisply finished piece, with a reassuringly ultra thick leather seat and waxed stitching, juxtaposing simple angled timber. If you’re looking for the antiques of the future, then this is surely a great place to start.
CHAIR ESSENTIALS: The Highgate Chair features a reassuringly thick leather seat and sits effortlessly in any setting.
International intrigue
The archive doesn’t just catalogue design, it touches on the lives of Amos’s parents, “They were perpetually interested, inspired and inventive, always striving for creativity and wishing to make a positive contribution,” Amos explains.
Tamar de Shalit was brought up in Tel Aviv. Her creative output spans interior design, furniture, textiles, lighting and jewellery, and heavily influenced the modernist and brutalist movement in Israel. Arthur Goldreich, an artist and designer, born in South Africa, was an active member within the ANC during the clandestine operations of the anti-apartheid underground: arrested in 1963 and escaping prison and avoiding a nationwide manhunt, dressed as a priest no less.
There are a myriad of stories to accompany the candid photographs, sketches, furniture and ephemera – meeting de Shalit, a visit from Che Guevara, sheltering Nelson Mandela, designing DJ booths and nightclub seating all feature – it’s this rich mix of social and design history that creates such a compelling reason to get ahead of the curve and invest.
Find out more at tamartdesign.com
