Please view our "Graceland East", New York, New York checklist at the end of the article...

The neighborhood really has no name. To some it's a corner of Greenwich Village; to others it's a busy old commercial district just south of Union Square's hubbub. Given that it's the locus of some of New York's finest antiques galleries, the area might deserve a special designation--Graceland East (with apologies to Elvis), since it's within a missal's throw of Grace Church, one of the most beautiful houses of worship in New York City. The church, which dates from 1846, is near attractive, old apartment buildings as well as mid-19th-century townhouses that reflect the graciousness of an earlier New York.

Furniture importers and wholesale antiques dealers initially moved into Graceland East before World War II. In recent decades, a slew of retail antiques dealers have followed, attracted by expansive showroom space in some of the century-old structures. While leading interior designers (not to mention movie-set designers) regularly troll the area for distinctive finds, many born-and-bred New Yorkers, let alone out-of-towners, are unaware of the riches. Most of the top dealers are clustered on just three blocks: East 10th to 12th streets, bounded by Broadway and University Place, a short street that runs parallel to Fifth Avenue.

Bernd Goeckler Antiques Inc., 30 East 10th, is an eclectic delight, offering European furniture and decorative accessories from the early 18th century to the 1940s. In the mix, one might encounter a pair of refined giltwork Swedish chairs, circa 1780, with arms that terminate in carved lions' heads ($20,500); a pair of weighty bronze lamps made in the 1930s by Danish craftsman Just Anderson ($9,500); or a seductive-looking 6-foot-long chaise longue (price on request) signed and dated "Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann Paris 1928." In perfect condition, the chaise looks as if it were ready for Jean Harlow to recline on its original pink plush.

Biedermeier is a keynote at Karl Kemp & Assoc., Ltd. Antiques, 34-36 East 10th, which deals in neoclassical furnishings dating from the early 19th century as well as 20th-century pieces that complement them. Among the more striking items recently on display was a so-called "Elephant Trunk Table," circa 1910, by Adolf Loos of Vienna ($24,000) and a 7-foot-tall clock made in Berlin exactly 100 years earlier ($160,000). The former, a mahogany cocktail table, has tapered legs suggestive of pachydermatous proboscises; the latter of poplar burl and ebonized fruitwood "really shows the connection between the neoclassical and Art Deco," notes Kemp.

Just about everything at O'Sullivan Antiques, 51 East 10th, comes from Ireland, says Trevor O'Reilly, the manager. But there are notable exceptions, such as a Louis XV-style sienna and white marble mantelpiece made in England around 1740, which once graced the opulent London home of the Earl of Chesterfield. More peculiar to the Old Sod is a stunning, dark mahogany George II side table with unusual scroll-and-pad feet. Richly carved, the table has a pierced apron centered with a shell flanked by foliate scrolls and ribbon-like flourishes. "Fine 18th-century Irish furniture is definitely a bit more flamboyant and larger in scale than its English counterparts," O'Reilly notes. Prices range from $10,000 to $250,000.