marcello fantoni ceramics

Cool and Collected

A vignette in the Hedge office inspires the endless pursuit of vintage rarities.

Lisa Marie Hart Current Guide, Home & Design, Real Estate

marcello fantoni ceramics
The personal pottery collection of Hedge co-owners Charles Pearson and Thomas Sharkey is an edited reflection of the pieces one might find in their Cathedral City shop.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN CHAVKIN

Displaying a similar range of hues is one rule of thumb for ensuring a group of objects appears to be curated instead of cluttered. The other rule of thumb is far more important: that those objects have meaning. For Charles Pearson and Thomas Sharkey, co-owners of Hedge in Cathedral City, the office adjacent to their shop is a place where meaningful vignettes take shape organically over time.

A figurative bridge between their vast retail space and their own home, the office is a third space where they surround themselves with beautiful vintage pieces in a setting that encourages inspiration.

The mosaic lamp in this office vignette features square ceramic tiles set into walnut. Its craftsmanship speaks to them despite its unknown maker. “Sometimes we keep things here to keep researching them, then we decide not to part with them,” Pearson says. “The individual piece is quite wonderful, but when you see it as part of a collection, that’s what makes it amazing.”

Their personal pottery collection is an edited reflection of the pieces one might find in their shop. The pair favors earth-tone vessels by Italian designers whose work was imported for the U.S. market in the early 1960s. The vases and ashtray are Marcello Fantoni for Raymor pottery. The rare ceramic bulls with metal horns are Alvino Bagni, also for Raymor. “In 10 years, we have only found two of them,” Sharkey says. “And one we just found six months ago.”

From 1950, the portrait is a time-loved piece that simply catches their eye. Midcentury art plays a role in their collections and the Hedge inventory, though it has become increasingly scarce to source. That’s part of their challenge and their calling. As Pearson adds, “We try to collect things that inspire us to be better buyers and better stewards of the store.”