Search result for: the-last-thing-you-aquired-
| # | Post Title | Result Info | Date | User | Forum |
| What Makes a Coffee Cup Functionalist, or Modern? | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | dcwilson | General discussion | |
| I am holding in my hand a simple, white, essentially modern ceramic coffee mug not unlike what one might find in a coffee shop not trying to cheat you out of coffee with cups that narrow at the base. If it were all white, I reckon it would pass for a pedestrian, perfectly adequate example of the modern,or perhaps the functionalist, form of a coffee cup. The cup is perfectly cylinderical, but for a small rim on the base. It is slightly taller in height than it is wide in diameter. It has a simple ovoid handle just right for index and middle fingers to slip through (something all too often missing in coffee cups). The thumb rests comfortably on the top of the handle, though the handle is not sculpted to receive the thumb. The handle is just thick enough, not too much. All in all, it is very serviceable, rationally designed coffee cup. It is easy to drink from. The only thing that keeps this coffee cup from being a perfectly serviceable example of the modern is this: it has a painted picture of a mallard duck with a green head and ring neck and brown body painted under the glaze on one side of the cup. On the other side, it has a facsimilie of the same mallard under the glaze, but it is a quarter of the size of the mallard on the opposite side. Kind of tacky, but I like the big duck, so I choose to overlook the little one. I am collaborating creatively in the design. As a rule, I detest anything that is hunter chic, or ornamented with fox hunts, etc. and this is borderline hunter chic. It has a green pin stripe at the lip of the mug and a green pin stripe at the base, so the cup and its duck are not without color coordination. Still, I like the duck and enjoy drinking coffee out of the cup and enjoy looking at the duck between sips. So shoot me. The cup has a brand label on its bottom: DUKA, perhaps as in Stuka. It also indicates it was made in Bavaria, even though the only DUKA ceramics business I find on Google indicates Slovenia. | |||||
| Heath... | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | dcwilson | General discussion | |
| Heath... I too cop to optimism about design's future. The world is being intentionally put through a financial, economic and political restructuring by the owners of the central bank for two reasons: 1)to make sure all of the recent growth does not let certain countries get off the central bank owners' leash; and 2) to ready the world for the greatest spike in growth and wealth generation that the world has ever seen by several orders of magnitude. The final brick in the foundation of this fantastic tidal wave of future growth may possibly just have been laid in place by some relatively little covered research from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. Not some oil, but likely most, or all oil is abiotic; i.e., it does not come from rotting bio-mass being compressed by the great weight of crust layers into oil, then coal then diamonds. Oil comes from an on-going chemical process in the upper mantel and is forced upwards through cracks and crevices in reservoirs in the earth's crust. It means, if test results can be duplicated by other scientfic teams, that the earth is not only never going to run out of oil (it is always being replenished and at a fairly rapid rate in some cases), it is going to be increasingly aways with it. We have lived through an era of cheap energy from cheap oil. We may be about to enter an era of dirt cheap energy from ubiquitous oil. And the beauty of it is: the research suggests that oil should be found just about everywhere. " Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed, Then one day he was shootin at some food, And up through the ground came a bubblin' crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. Well the first thing you know ol' Jed's a millionaire, Kinfolk said Jed move away from there Said Californy is the place you ought to be So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly. Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, movie stars." Hope springs eternal, especially whenever oil does, too. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/279153 | |||||
| RE: Help IDing MCF dresser... Edmund Spence? | 1 Relevance | 7 years ago | leif ericson - Zephyr Renner | Identification | |
| People are misreading the Brande Møbelfabrik stamp when they read the J. Clausen line as indicating the designer. It does not indicate designer. It indicates the owner of the company was J. Clausen. And this was important because there was another company called Brande Møbelindustri so adding the owner’s name was the Danish way of clarifying the situation. That said it is entirely possible that J Clausen did design the pieces made by his company. He would certainly be a likely candidate since he didn’t advertise an architect as the designer. People often have a hard time understanding why the Danes didn’t mark everything and they develop all sort skills of insecurities about this culminating in the stupidity of forging marks sometimes. The basic thing that needs to be understood is that a mark was not for us and it had its own meaning aside from the false meaning we misapply to it in our belief that it should have what we understand as a ‘maker’s mark’. In the late 1940s marks on danish pieces were exclusively retailer’s marks. Even when they also accidentally indicated the maker, like with a small cabinetmaker, they were marked as such because the cabinetmaker retailed his own pieces. In fact this was the distinction between a cabinetmaker and a factory then. The factory sold to a retailer unmarked and the cabinetmakers sold direct to the public. Except when someone broke the rules quietly and a factory sold to the public directly. In 1950 this started changing with Carl Hansen and Wegner. They put a maker’s mark on pieces sold to retailers, breaking the rule. And sometimes a retailer would cover the maker’s mark. And by 1960, with the growth of the export market the old rules became more flexible. Some retailers demanded unmarked goods, or that the retailer’s name was more prominent. Some were happy with maker’s marks. But everyone realized that marking was useful to build a brand presence so it became more common. So it was complicated. | |||||
| RE: DA old timers | 1 Relevance | 7 years ago | Spanky | Off topic | |
| tktoo--the wenge I found was from Rockland selling on ebay---free shipping, i think. I'm gonna go ahead and get some. The other little crack looks a micromilimeter or two wider than a few days ago, though it could be my imagination. I cleaned out the other ones by dripping acetone into them and gently scraping with a #11 X-acto blade, then rinsing with acetone. Just glued up a very teeny hairline split on a walnut cheese board (Ernest Sohn--some of his stuff is kitschy but some is nice!) and clamped it with a tourniquet because my little bar clamps are about 1/2" too short! Grrr! I used to have big bar clamps but i gave them to a friend. SDR you asked to see my tourniquet. The webbing used to be on the usually band clamp deal with the ratchet thing that you crank tight, but it froze up and nothing I did could loosen it, so I just cut the ratchet part off and am using the webbing which is very strong and has no give to it. I think it's nylon. I just knotted it and stuff a big aluminum crochet hook through the knot, then twisted it tight and clamped the crochet hook down with a 6" spring clamp. The painter's tape is just to keep any excess glue from soaking into the wood, which is extremely dry---probably from someone running this through the dishwasher a bunch. I like crochet hooks for stuff like this because they are very smooth, no corners or edges to ding up the wood. They're also comfortable in the hand, and they're helpful when weaving the final strands of paper cord seats, both to widen a hole that you have to stick cord through and to hook it and pull it through. Attachment: IMG_3006.jpeg | |||||
| woody and tktoo (and adamfowler) | 1 Relevance | 13 years ago | Eameshead | General discussion | |
| woody and tktoo (and adamfowler) The "silver painted metal thing" that tktoo is asking about is on the link with your posted images, not with the main thread page pics. It is the center and left photo on the third row down on the linked page. It looks like an "erased" head/portrait. Almost what appears to be a physical "crater" where the head should go. Yeah woody, what's the story? Erased images are part of a long tradition in art. The most famous erased image is probably Robert Rauschenberg's "Erased Willem de Kooning", where he actually asked de Kooning to give him one of his drawings so that he could erase it-- thereby creating a "collaborative drawing" with de Kooning. de Kooning picked out one for him that he knew would be VERY difficult to erase, and gave him his blessing to do the piece. The resulting collaboration is not quite invisible, with bits of the original drawing still visible. There is also Arnulf Ranier, a german artist who basically covers up images of his own face with black gestural scribbles and marks. A different kind of "erasing". Oh and how about Jasper John's "blind" prints of his own face, where he rolled his previously inked face directly onto the paper from ear to ear. A face print. I have to say that I mostly argree with adamfowler about most of the work on the old thread that fastforward (?) linked. For me, not much of the art on that thread gets past a kind of rudderless and mostly decorative attitude, and seems to lack seriousness in its intent. I stress the word MOST. (Not all) Art is more than just about one's taste. There ARE standards. (They just are a lot harder to verbalize, thats all) Taste is taste, and then there is authenticity, which is totally different. I do like some of the larger and very overloaded "aborigninal" pieces. But not much else seems to have any "toughness" or edge to it, and makes me feel like I am eating sugar, and have to keep moving through the paintings in search of something that gets past that "decoration" problem. | |||||
| Cane daybeds any ideas on them???? | 1 Relevance | 11 years ago | FLagent | Identification | |
| First off I really try to only ask for help in identifying pieces after I have extensively tried my very best to search myself through the Internet and collection of design books and back issue magazines. I appreciate all of the expert and novice contributors on this forum and really do not want to waste anyone's time. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and hopefully respond to this... I have these daybeds. I have searched for weeks and can not find anything similar. Bases seem similar to Wormley, obviously some Hvidt similarities To the sofas in whole. I have found some similarities to the base and arm structure to some Wegner sofas as well. And the tone of the whole thing looks like it would go very nicely next to a Florence Knoll cane credenza. However I am not even trying to say it could be any of those. They have been upholstered at least three times with the oldest scraps of upholstery still attached to the bottom of the frame being a earth tone stripped tweed. The unexposed frame is all oak. I am thinking these are American made and of fairly high quality but really have no idea. I believe they are walnut, but identifying wood species is not quite my strong suit. They are very low measuring 24 inches to the highest point of the back cushions. Any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated to help me try to identify anything about them. If know one recognizes them then even some keywords that I may not be thinking of in searching online would be great!!! | |||||
| Vincy | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | fastfwd | General discussion | |
| Vincy What you're trying to do is closer to art than to commercial design... And everyone knows that most artists starve. So your choices basically boil down to either doing what artists do or becoming more of a real-world commercial designer. Personally, I think the latter idea's the most likely to lead to financial success, but here are a few things of both types that you can try: 1. Find a rich patron who loves your work and is willing to spend a fortune for it. If a joke like Bobby Trendy can do this, so can you. 2. Learn to make the pieces yourself. Look at how fashion designers start: Very few begin their careers just sketching designs and sending them off to contract manufacturers to be produced; they all start out sewing their stuff themselves. 3. Make a name for yourself with pieces that are simpler or cheaper to produce than furniture, and work your way up. 4. Build your reputation in a different medium -- sculpture, or architecture or interior design or something. 5. Design mass-market pieces the sales of which can subsidize your high-end pieces. 6. Go to work for one of those $3K/chair manufacturers as a welder or a carpenter or whatever, so you can learn more about the manufacturing process and design for it. 7. Get employed by another furniture designer. If you're good, you'll eventually rise out of design-staff anonymity, and along the way you'll make valuable contacts, learn a whole lot about the constraints under which real-world design happens, and make a decent living. 8. Get quotes from lower-priced offshore manufacturers. They advertise, they exhibit at trade shows... They need you as much as you need them, so they're not hard to find. 9. Forget about those "galleries, showrooms, and dealers" that take 50%. This is the 21st century; sell your work directly, on that internet thing. 10. Oh, and if you don't already live in a place where people buy high-end limited-edition furniture -- i.e., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, or maybe Dallas -- move there. Good luck... | |||||
| Questions about Early Eames Lounge | 1 Relevance | 14 years ago | adamrosa | General discussion | |
| We recently purchased an older Eames Lounge chair from a historic social club in Chicago through a silent auction. Though the chair has very obvious signs of wear and tear, and was missing the ottoman, we still feel we did pretty well with the price. Since the source of the chair was a club known as the Cliff Dwellers which is focused on arts and design with a history dating back to the early 1900s, we were hoping the chair was authentic. After doing some research online we were able to verify its authenticity based on the Herman Miller / Eames labels on the bottom as well as other features. A bit more research and now we feel that we have a very early version of the Eames Lounge. I've posted some photos and have a few questions: What we've read online seems to say that if the chair has down feather cushions, the round white Eames sticker, round cushion fasterns, and three screws for each arm rest than it is probably of late 1950s vintage. Our chair has all of these... can anyone confirm that these are the primary ways to date the chair? As you'll notice from the photos, the major modification seems to be 4 bolts on either side securing the arm rests. Was this a common fix for the Eames Lounge? Knowing that the overall value has been affected with this modification, if we decided to restore the chair, would we be better off keeping the bolts or trying to have the arm rests re-attached and the bolt holes plugged? One other thing that we noted was that the number "185" is engraved on both the upper and lower backrest and seat. Does this number have any meaning in terms of dating or vintage? Do older vintage Eames Lounges have a higher resale value than 70's through current versions? Any ballpark in cost for what we may be looking at to restore/reupholster the leather on the cushions? Thanks! http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a42/adamrosa/Eames%20Lounge/ | |||||
| Interesting -- | 1 Relevance | 22 years ago | SDR | General discussion | |
| Interesting -- is that a quote? I am going through "The Design of Herman Miller" by Ralph Caplan (Whitney Library of Design,1976). Does anyone have this book? It is really the story of the company, headed by a highly principled midwest Christian (D J De Pree) who believed in backing up wholly the creative people he hired to design. Gilbert Rohde brought modern design to the company in 1930; he died in 1944, and in 1945 George Nelson fortuitously appeared to take up the reins (after De Pree had considered both Erich Mendelssohn and Rusell Wright). Nelson and Henry Wright had written their article for Architectural Forum, describing Storagewall; this was brought to the attention of De Pree. The "middleman" wrote, "George said he knew nothing about furniture design, but would love to do it. Then he began talking about what needed to be done. He was the first one who really said the kind of thing we were hoping somebody would say." Caplan says, "As design director, Nelson did far more than direct design. He supplied the company with a corporate philosophy; he formulated a marketing strategy -- for example, identifying architects, rather than department store buyers, as the people most likely to be sympathetic to Herman Miller products. . ." (Massachusetts architect and founder, in 1952, of Design Research stores, Benjamin Thompson, in his preface to the book, says, "Eames' chairs soon became Herman Miller's most famous design product. Nelson designed a wider range of desks, sofas, bureaus, and storage pieces, but the Herman Miller Company was not marketing furniture for retail sales and the price structure did not work for D/R. Yet for many years we displayed the chairs particularly. We couldn't stand not having them around, just so our design customers would know what a friend really ought to be like.") | |||||
| Ah--now that I've seen the | 1 Relevance | 11 years ago | Spanky | General discussion | |
| Ah--now that I've seen the wonderful ad supplied by Leif, there is one more thing. The back frame is curved a bit. If you just put a slab of conventional urethane foam on this, the foam will not conform to the curve. I am quite sure that the originals had latex cushions and latex is much heavier and floppier than urethane, traits that let it sag into curves nicely. The problem is that the cost of latex foam is about 4X that of conventional urethane foam. If you can swing it, by all means get it! It's more resilient, thus more comfortable, and it will outlast urethane foam by many years. It will not develop hollows the way urethane foam eventually does. Anyway, the way I've gotten around this curve issue with urethane foam is to cut very narrow (1/4" or less) grooves, or kerfs, with a new razor blade crosswise in the cushion where I want a concave curve. I spray adhesive into the grooves and then press them closed. You have to do one or two at a time until you get the curve you want. You can do this on the lower back too, and wherever there are convex curves just cut a few slits and let them open up (no gluing). If you do this, you really need to also cut the side panels in the same curved shape as the sides of the foam. If you just use straight strips of fabric, the fabric will have ripples in it at the curves. If you want to go a little nuts with the comfort level, do two layers of thinner foam for the back. On the lumbar region on the backside of the cushion, use a denser foam. This will give the feel of a lumbar curve to the back but the cushion will still have the outward appearance of a uniform thickness cushion like on the original. It would also mean buying several densities of foam, though--you kind of have to mess around trying different combinations if you want it to be just right. An accommodating upholsterer might let you do this in his shop---it might be worth asking! Many will probably just roll their eyes at a request like this but some might be interested in trying it. It really does make a huge difference. My drawing is not to scale and is only to illustrate what I'm talking about for the lumbar support! | |||||
| Prague Czech Republic | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | LRF | General discussion | |
| Prague Czech Republic I was in Prague From October 1 to the 10 and the weather was the greatest. We ate outside almost every night on ST. Wienslet Sq. We stayed at the beautiful Merriott around the corner . The food was terrific and it was so reasonable, The original Buddwiser Beer was great too. I have been all over Europe but Prague was the greatest. Just the idea that there are so many different architectural style buildings. and when you see the Cubism buildings you will flip they are all scattered around the city and not in one place. The other place that impressed me so much was the old Jewish section or the ghetto as it was known , and then you can take two steps back word for just a few minutes and just think how they spear headed almost 150,000 people into a 10 block area. The cemetery has 10s of thousands of people buried in one tiny acre of land . But the 2 synagogues that the Nazis left in tact are very humbling and beautiful. The one thing that does stick in my mind from the tour guide, was with in 60 days after communism was lifted in the eastern Block, Prague was the first city to take out the Paint and repaint as many buildings in bright colors that they could . The original artisan Bohemians have long been gone from the hills of Bohemian but there spirit still lives on in Prague I have no idea why I did not buy a book on cubism buildings, I am sure there are lots of books on the subject as are nice T-shirts with Kafka on them a lots of Glass flowers and cool blown glass from Bohemia. We hired a car and our own tour guide . He told us that the Nazis left Praque alone cause Hitler loved the city.. He hated the Bohemians but did recogonize them as artistians who gave the city the charm and beauty that it has . In his distorted mind he told his people that he would like to have taken over the city of Prague and use it as one of his Headquarters for world domination. (one sick F@#$) thank G-D us Americans with the Help of the British whipped his sorry ass or we would have been going to Hitler City. | |||||
| Part 1 | 1 Relevance | 20 years ago | sharplinesoldtimes | General discussion | |
| Part 1 Hello Baked. I live in Copenhagen and I know just about every store there is so let me give you some clues to what's interesting in Cph. Illums Bolighus is the largest designstore in Denmark and is worth a visit, though I'm sure you've seen most of what they have for sale anyway. It lays right in the center of Strøget (near Storkespringvandet), a looooong road filled with stores and can be easily found. DDC (Danish Design Center) can be really exiting, however really not at the moment. Their exhibition area is not that large but it's only a few minutes walk from the Town Hall/Square opposite Tivoli so if you have some spare time, you can go there. The SAS hotel is nice for having a drink at night in the lounge or even better, having dinner/lunch at Alberto K in the top of the building with a spectacular view of Cph. from above. Excellent food, excellent service and excellent interior (however expensive too). If you have the time, go visit the Louisiana museum in Hornbæk. It's about 45 min. by train/bus but they have a fantastic modern art collection and a huge retrospective exhibition on Poul Kjærholm with rare drawings and prototypes. Louisiana and its surroundings is themselves worth a visit. One thing you must not cheat yourself from seing is The Danish Museum of Design in Bredgade called Kunstindustrimuseet. It's in the Top 5 over design-museums in the world and their collection is massive and very impressive! Only about 1/5 is on exhibition but you can spend hours there going through items from China, Japan, most of Europe but esp. the modern department is really good where each room is dedicated to fx. Kaare Klint, PH, Arne Jacobsen, Pop Art furniture, Danish Modern etc. Part of their impressive collection has been packed together because they've made room for two very interesting exhibitions about textiles by Hanne Vedel and fantastic silver items by Allan Scharff but the good stuff's still there. You must go there! | |||||
| I have no answer... | 1 Relevance | 20 years ago | koen | General discussion | |
| I have no answer... ...but greetings from Miami is just what we needed here. This morning we started the day at -30 C that's just about -20 at your scale.... Let's se, where do we start. First of all you are in the envious position to have a product with a proven record. I am sure that you can translate those figures into realistic figures for your two prospects. The nice thing with a proven record, no matter how small is thet you can multiply and have a good basis for royalty discussions. The days of royalties are not over. To link your financial reward to the performance of the product on the market is still an attractive proposition for most manufacturers. In the north american furniture industry, 4-5% on wholesale is still a common royalty percentage. Although a percentage is still a good basis I would turn it into a flat rate per product, just because it is so much easier to handle. Yes there are standard royalty agreements and I am sure that your local IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America) chapter can provide you with the most up to date one. Make sur the contract specifies an advance on royalties and a limited time of licence that can be renewed automatically as long as both parties are happy. The advance on royalties is important because it decreases the risk that the project is put on the shelf and being "considered" for too long a time. If it does not cost anything up front there is not enough incentive to bring it to the market. Without being greedy it is important to make it a seriuous amount 10 to $15.000 seems reasonable for a product that will give you a revenue of at least double that amount a year. If yuo can gather evidence thatit will be more, raise the amount accordingly. The most important part of what you have to know is not the small print of a contract. The most important part is to do your homework which basically comes down to knowing how much they are capable of selling. With what you have sold already it must be easy to do the math. Good luck! If you want to get into the small details, send me an E-mail. | |||||
| rare Danish cradle | 1 Relevance | 21 years ago | NULL NULL | General discussion | |
| rare Danish cradle Hi, all--new here but have been collecting awhile. I go to a lot of local auctions and have gotten some real finds. Probably my best ever was a rare cradle by Danish designer Nanna Ditzel. It was at a really snooty, somewhat shady auction house that I don't normally patronize but happened to go this once. I spotted the cradle in the back with garden junk piled in it. There were some dealers there who buy mod stuff so I didn't want to look too interested init. I looked as closely as I dared for a mark but didn't see anything. The lighting was bad and the thing sitting in it was heavy and too hard to move, plus those jerks didn't like patrons messing up their precious displays! Anyway, they started the bidding at $30. I just assumed that I'd have to pay at least $100 for it, so I said OK. But then no one else bid! I got it for $30. I paid my bill and took the cradle outside (someone else bought the garden equipment). There under the foam mattress was the "Made in Denmark" sticker. Woohoo! Went home and looked it up---Nanna Ditzel. The only mention I could find on the internet was on the mobelkunst.dk site and they didn't even give a price ("on request"). I wrote and asked and it took awhile for them to get back to me, but it was worth the wait: US$3600! My older daughter saw it and said, "mom, you can't sell this!" And she's right, I can't. She is a fan of good mid-century design and just got married and they plan to have kids. I can't NOT let my grandchildren sleep in this cradle, even though we could really use the money! A few other auction finds: Saarinen tulip table & two chairs, $5 (condition kinda rough, but still) very thick, long flokati rug, 6x9, $3 Arteluce 3 arm chrome globe lamp, $80 (not dirt cheap but I love it dearly--I THINK it's Arteluce) Nessen table lamps for $2 each Arabia art pottery bowl, $5 (sold for $375 or something like that) several Saarinen tulip dining table bases for very cheap - they have the exact profile of the Saarinen ones but I've never been able to tell if they are real or not (not that I care much) | |||||
| I've had a lot of vintage bubble lamps | 1 Relevance | 15 years ago | Pegboard Modern | General discussion | |
| I've had a lot of vintage bubble lamps And nearly all needed some cleaning. The worst one had a mud-dobbers nest inside that I had to remove. Having cleaned a lot, I'm more comfortable working with them and so some of my suggestions may not be for the timid. I've found that you are best to clean the entire lamp as trying to address one spot will end up showing and one clean spot can be more distracting than the dirt or spot that was there before. For a lamp that has years of dust, dirt, grime, grease, and smoke on the shade here is what I typically do: First, remove the wiring and socket, then take off the top and bottom finishing ring. These are easily done by gently prying the metal tabs back from the inside. Next, start a warm shower. That's right, take the lamp into the shower. I find it easy to kill two birds and do it when I want to get clean as well. Inside the shower I wash the shade gently with a sponge or soft cloth. I have used a variety of commercial soaps and cleaners from shampoo (Hey! I was already going to use it myself) to dish soap, Soft Scrub and Borax depending on how stubborn the dirt is. When the shade gets wet it will soften and sag a bit. Don't freak out. Once dry it will tighten up again. The key things to remember are to be gentle as you can easily puncture the shade with a sudden or careless move, and to rinse and dry everything thoroughly before reassembling. I have damaged bubble lamps with carelessness, usually when they are hanging overhead, never while I was cleaning them. But if you are cautious you should not have any problem. Two caveats: one is that the lamp needs to be a manageable size to clean them the way I've described. A 36" saucer might not fit well in your shower, and you always want to handle the shade by the openings on the top and bottom, never on the sides. Second, if the lamp is not terribly dirty... I mean really dirty and gross, you are often better off leaving it as it is. The patina they acquire from age, and yes, even the yellowing can be a desirable thing to collectors. I like them old and mellow myself. I can spot a new production bubble lamp from quite a distance and to me they just don't have the same character. But if you are keeping it and using it, make it look the way you are happy with. Good luck. | |||||
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