Design Mecca

By: Bobbie Leigh

March 2007

The Upper East Side is a mecca for sensory delights,” says designer and collector Ellie Cullman,

The walls of Ellie Cullman's living room are glazed in a "Persian Blue" taken from the ground of her c. 1920 Tabriz carpet. Kenneth Noland, "Warm Reverie" (on left wall), 1962, acrylic on canvas.

who lives in a 1929 Park Avenue duplex and works out of an office on Madison Avenue. Active in Manhattan’s museum world, Cullman is a noted collector of Asian art, American folk art and 19th- and 20th-century American paintings by artists such as Martin Johnson Heade, William Michael Harnett, Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, Edward Hopper and Helen Frankenthaler. She also ranks among a handful of designers knowledgeable enough to curate museum exhibitions. At the Museum of American Folk Art she was the curator for Andy Warhol’s “Folk and Funk” in 1977 and “Small Folk” in 1980.

Starting in 1984, Cullman and her late partner Hedi Kravis built a coterie of A-list clients, most of whom are fine-art and antiques collectors. Not surprisingly, Cullman frequents museums to mine them for insights she can translate into designs. “Every museum is a valuable reference, especially for ideas about historical styles, color, texture and surface,” she says. She finds the Neue Galerie one of the most exciting museums in New York for its collection of early 20th-century German and Austrian art and design, which she says is often overlooked in larger collections. Despite her interest in historical representation, Cullman does not create textbook period-perfect rooms. “When we started Cullman & Kravis, we were more concerned with historic appropriateness, but that’s not how our clients choose to live,” she says.

What her clients want are livable rooms, which Cullman designs with signature innovations, such as layered lighting and decorative wall painting. “My own elevator landing is stenciled in a pattern that was inspired by the brocade of a Japanese obi,” she says. Cullman is also known for her pairings of classic and contemporary artworks and furniture: In her apartment, she hung a 19th-century oil by John Frederick Peto, an American still-life painter, juxtaposed with a mid-20th-century target painting by Kenneth Noland.Cullman finds many antiques and art at dealers on the Upper East Side, where she searches for

Bronze statue of a Dancing Shiva, late 12th or early 13th century, from Angkor Thom, capital of the Khmer empire.

unique selections, including masterworks of southeast Asian sculpture, Chinese porcelain and Regency furniture. Following are seven of her choices for finding a sumptuous variety of antiques and decorative arts on the Upper East Side:

1. “The Chinese Porcelain Company has a wonderful mix of Chinese antiquities and high-style French furniture,” says Cullman, who has purchased Tang dynasty terra-cotta figures, such as a pair of horses with rider.

2. At Carlton Rochell Asian Art, Cullman finds paintings, sculpture and decorative arts prior to 1850 from India, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia. Among the rarities here is a watercolor study of a white egret ($65,000), typical of the ornithological paintings produced in India for British collectors.

3. Along “Antique Row,” the stretch of some 15 dealers on East 60th Street from Third Avenue to the river, you can find such specialties as English country antiques, vintage lighting and mid-century European furniture. Noting that there are many fine shops between Second and Third, Cullman advises, “You should make time to visit them all.” However, if that’s not possible, she recommends visiting one of her favorites, Guy Regal Ltd., which specializes in 17th- to 20th-century Continental furniture, decorative accessories and fine art. Recent Cullman purchases at Guy Regal are a pair of 18th-century Italian painted commodinis (small bedside chests with two drawers) and a pair of French 19th-century gilt tole and opaline glass sconces with five lights. While Ann-Morris Antiques, another Cullman favorite, sells only to the trade, it is worth arranging a visit because of its specialties in country furniture, period lighting and specialty custom lighting. (You can gain entry to such dealers by inviting a professional to accompany you or by asking your designer or architect to call ahead on your behalf.) “At Ann-Morris, you can always find traditional copper lanterns, kitchen lighting and terrific pot racks,” says Cullman.

4. Cullman calls Virginia Di Sciascio Antique Textiles “an extraordinary shop.” Tucked away on East 71st Street, this dealer specializes in luxurious European textiles (velvets, embroideries, silks and damasks) from the 17th to 19th centuries. Di Sciascio also maintains a comprehensive inventory of Persian, Indian, Turkish, Chinese and other ethnic textiles, which can be transformed into pillows or other upholstered pieces in her workshop. By way of example, an early 19th-century Turkish silver- and gold-embroidered velvet fragment is priced at $1,150. (Transforming that fragment into a 20-inch-square pillow with antique trimming will cost an additional $750.)5. If you are in the market for English and European antiques, visit Florian Papp, which was

Louis XVI mahogany demilune console with white marble top, c. 1785, by Jean-Phillippe Feuerstein.

established in 1900 by the grandfather of the current owners, siblings William and Melinda Papp. “Each piece here is not only aesthetically beautiful, but it will also be steeped in salient points that a collector looks for whether the period is 19th- or 20th-century, English, European or Asian,” Cullman says. For example, Papp currently has a Louis XVI neoclassical mahogany commode, stamped by S. Bury, and dated 1780. Priced at $58,000, it is an elegant, timeless design that is also an important academic representation of its period.

6. “H.M. Luther carries a diverse selection of fine furniture and decorative items from a wide range of periods and cultures,” says Cullman, who describes Luther’s taste as “atypical for what is in New York, and easy to live with.” The specialties are European and Asian furniture, mirrors, chandeliers and decorative objects from the 17th to 20th centuries. Especially strong, she says, are the selections of Northern European furniture and Japanese bronze vessels. Representative of Luther’s taste is an 18th-century Swedish carved, gilt wood mirror ($49,000). Neoclassical in style, it’s what Luther calls “not a quiet piece, but assertive and complex.”

7. “Don’t miss Betty Jane Bart, a fanciful, idiosyncratic shop with 17th-century Italian frames, painted screens and furniture,” Cullman says. Bart’s offbeat selections range from 17th-century stone carvings to French mannequins and a marquetry floor. What unites these disparate pieces is a certain informal elegance. Nothing is overly refined or excessively refinished, yielding an unusual mix of whimsy and sophistication.

The same could be said for Cullman’s approach to creating livable homes for her clients. She scours the Upper East Side with an eye for quality and originality, yet every selection reflects countless historic sources and significant references. What is astounding about Cullman is how the rooms she designs—elegant, refined and eminently livable rooms—are a reflection of her spirit. As one dealer says, “She is not a jaded designer. She enjoys life to the fullest and her work reflects that joy in all things beautiful.”

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Bobbie Leigh is an Art & Antiques New York correspondent.

Pair of neoclassic-style polychrome-decorated commodinis with fluted corners, 19th century.

UPPER EAST SIDE MUST-VISITS

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(Area code 212)

►Ann-Morris Antiques
239 East 60th St.
212.755.3308.
(To the trade only.)

►Betty Jane Bart Antiques
1225 Madison Ave.
212.410.2792

►Carlton Rochell Asian Art
41 East 57th St.
212.759.7600
www.carltonrochell.com

►Florian Papp
962 Madison Ave.
212.288.6770
www.florianpapp.com

►Guy Regal Ltd.
223 East 60th St.
212.888.2134
www.guyregalltd.com

►H.M. Luther
35 East 76th St.
212.439.7919
www.hmluther.com

►The Chinese Porcelain Co.
475 Park Ave.
212.838.7744
www.chineseporcelainco.com

►Virginia Di Sciascio Antique Textiles
19 East 71st St.
212.794.8807