Twentieth Century Antiques on the Rue de Lille

A stroll through the city’s hottest new enclave of 20th-century galleries

Thirty years ago, the French considered collecting even 19th-century antiques to be avant-garde, and architectural heritage maps of the soigné 7th arrondissement didn’t bother to include anything later than 18th-century hôtels particuliers. But in this new 21st century, Parisian taste has whizzed fast forward. In the antiquaire stronghold of the Carré Rive Gauche, home of Old Masters and bastion of 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century furniture, suddenly the rue de Lille has metamorphosed into Modernist Row.

“There were only five 20th-century galleries here when I arrived ten years ago,” says Thierry Librati, who mixes design with contemporary art. “Now we are more than 20.” And, at the annual September Parcours du XXème Siècle event that Librati organizes with Edouard Demachy and Carlos Moïta of the gallery D-Room, Modernist dealers from the neighboring streets join in, making a total of some 40 venues for the open house and festive street party.

Prices may not be as low as the flea market, where many of the dealers who have colonized the rue de Lille started out, but they’re not sky-high either. And you may find yourself sharing the sidewalk with such sophisticated fellow antique hunters as Gallic decorating guru Jacques Grange, young French talent Jean-Louis Deniot and London’s Tino Zervudachi, along with American decorators Juan Montoya, David Kleinberg, Tony Ingrao, Brian McCarthy and Peter Marino.

A recent stroll down the rue de Lille from the rue des Saints-Pères to the rue de Beaune pinpointed the kind of great finds that have made the street an insider hot spot:

No. 3: A pair of unique, 1970s suede-covered oak and polished steel commodes (€15,000) in the window of decorative arts dealers Luc Debruille and Alain Zlotogora were rescued from the Hôtel Lambert, the legendary mansion on the Ile Saint Louis formerly owned by Guy and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild. Another 1970s piece but in startling contrast, the cavernous “carnivore chair” (€25,000) by French artist Louis Durot has giant green leaves forming a canopy over a tomato red seat.

Also No. 3: On show at ALB Antiquités, a green-trimmed white desk with a juvenile air by Robert Mallet-Stevens (c. 1915, one of a pair, €15,000); a jauntily exotic Bugatti chair of ivory, parchment and copper; and a simply sumptuous 1973 four-panel, 3-D, silk, wool and raffia tapestry by Sheila Hicks (€180,000).

No. 7: Karl Lagerfeld’s bookshop, Librairie 7L, is an educational source stocking the same glossy tomes on art, antiques, decoration, design, fashion, photography and architecture — as well as selected fiction and avant-garde magazines — that continue to augment Kaiser Karl’s own 60,000-volume collection.

No. 11: The Chahan Gallery has space for such eye-popping pieces as six panels from Brooklyn ceramist Peter Lane’s ten-panel Modernist wall, Seabed, made of metallic-treated textured clay (€300,000), along with Lane’s glazed stoneware centerpieces and lamp bases (€12,000), and Lina Zervudaki’s rattan Fish chaise longue made for Elsa Schiaparelli (€15,000). website

No. 18: Contemporary art gallery Arums has stepped firmly into the 21st century with artist Lilian Daubisse’s L’Hérisson — a hulking, Sesame-Street-style porcupine made of hand-placed quills of black cardboard (€12,000). Clémence Van Lunen’s black porcelain sculpture, Le Dragon dans les Nuages (€16,000), is a co-edition of six with the Manufacture de Sèvres, and top Israeli designer Ron Arad’s design-as-art Pizza/Cobra retractable steel LED lamp (€1,000) — an unlimited edition — is sold in a pizza box. website

No. 22: Philippe Sinceux has taken over the spacious former premises of antiques dealer Jacques Lacoste, who moved to the rue de Seine. Sinceux’s unusual selection includes a leather-covered rosewood armoire by 1940s designer Maxime Old (€30,000) and a gleaming steel crisscrossed four-poster by Paris-based cult designer Maria Pergay (€75,000).

No. 23: Galerie André Hayat has a great selection of covetable Jean Royère pieces, including a pair of red metal chairs (€35,000) as well as andirons, sconces and a coffee table. A 1925 gilded iron and crystal chandelier by Baguès (€35,000) glitters above Hayat’s own collection of mirrors strikingly framed in silvered or gilded bronze or rock crystal (€5,000-€9,000). website

No. 29: D-Room’s Edouard Demachy and Carlos Moïta have tracked down the kind of stunning pieces that lend instant cachet to any decor. Take the alluring 1936 architect’s multi-purpose piece in honeyed maple that folds, pivots, rises or descends to become a console, a coffee table or a pedestal table (€28,000). A dramatic ’70s coral-red lacquered screen dusted with gold leaf (€7,000) is very much in the spirit of renowned 1950s Parisian decorating firm Jansen, and a 1940s jade green glass coupelle by Italian architect Carlos Scarpa (€600). website

No. 30: One of art/design gallery owner Thierry Librati’s current favorite contemporary artists is German photographer Stefanie Schneider, who works between California and Berlin and creates her poetic “instandreams” prints using out of date Polaroid and Super 8 film. (€2,200-€20,000). website

Also No. 30: La Galerie Parisienne combines 20th-century furniture and decorative accessories from mobiles to ashtrays (€50-300) with exceptional vintage jewelry like the exquisite 1930-40s Suzanne Belperron gold, sapphire and diamond bracelet linked by engraved sapphire pearls (€55,000) that starred in their recent exhibit. website

No. 32: At Robert and Camille Murphy’s Galerie RCM, the current alluring collection of stainless steel abstract sculptures dates from the 1970s up to 2004 (€7,000-€13,000).

Those who prefer their collectibles to be wearable can skip around the corner to La Renaissance, 14 rue de Beaune, where Corinne Than-Trong offers an impeccable selection of mid-20th-century couture and costume jewelry from Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel, Valentino and Cristóbal Balenciaga (starting around €250). website

Originally published in the January 2010 issue of France Today.