Today’s design is all about mixing different periods of furniture and art. If it is all from the same time and place, well it is ….Boring! How is it done? Pay a visit to Iliad Gallery, located at 212 East 57th Street in New York, just off 3rd Avenue, to find out from the best. 
Iliad is fierce! Owners (and spouses) Adam Brown and Andrea Zemel 
are simply geniuses at combining the finest in decorative and fine arts spanning 5000 years of mankind. Their furniture and art has found its way into the finest homes. This photo by Pieter Estersohn of the apartment of Broadway producer, Candia Fisher, shown in the November 2009 issue of Elle Decor, features a dining room table and chairs from Iliad: 
The Gallery’s motto ”where classicism meets modernism” is very apt. Iliad blends Austro-Hungarian Biedermeier furniture and Art Deco furniture, with Greco and Asian antiquities and Hungarian Post-Impressionism and Modernist art (1900-1940), adding a sprinkle of edgy contemporary art and sculpture. Oh, and there is gorgeous glass, lighting and Japanese Screens too.
The Gallery itself is architecturally spectacular with a wonderful surprise layout (that I won’t give away) and I am strongly urging a first hand look-see. But if you can’t make it, here are some of my favorites that subtly suggest the threads that link all those different periods. The following photos are all from the Iliad website, which is worth a visit itself, if only to read the primers on collecting fine Beidermeier furniture and Hungarian art.
We will start with this beautiful Art Deco secretaire by Eugene Praz, France, 1929 and a close up of its marquetry scene depicting a landscape in the manner of a Song Dynasty scroll painting. 
I think this secretaire would look fantastic in the same room as this 2 panel Japanese folding screen from the Taisho Period, c. 1920.
Another intriguing piece is a unique Neoclassical recamiere with a carved mythical creature, Berlin, c. 1800. A glazed ceramic and glass mosaic, entitled Chronos, created by Andrea Zemel in 2005 would have a wonderful synergy in the same room.
Then there is Andrea’s glazed ceramic and glass mosaic, entitled Ariadne and created in 2009 (there is a series of these). 
It would be right at home with the Greek inspired saber legs of this Biedermeier occasional table, Austria, c. 1825.
I also love this landscape by Hungarian painter, Barna Basilides. I see it hung right above this powerful Biedermeier console, Germany, c.1830. There is something about the scrolling legs of the console and the wind blown trees that seem so compatible to me. 
Finally, this absolutely charming horse from the Tang Dynasty (it dates from 618-907!) would be welcome in any room. Some things never ever go out of style!
