O’Sullivan Antiques
by Susanna Salk for 1stdibs

"I like things with strong character," says Chantal O’Sullivan of the Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian furniture she carries in her Greenwich Village store which opened in 1996, following the triumphant 1990 debut of its sister shop in Dublin, Ireland. As a result, O’Sullivan has been largely responsible for the surge in popularity of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Irish antiques. Much must be attributed not just to the fabulously unique pieces, but to the woman herself. Says O’Sullivan, “When you buy from me, you’re getting a part of me, of what I’ve seen, and what intrigues me.”

Looking at some of the store’s show-stopping pieces – such as the eighteenth-century Irish Georgian mahogany silver table with carved shell on the frieze, or the early nineteenth-century Irish mask table with its molded verde antico marble top – it’s hard to believe that Irish antiques were once low on the totem pole of collectors’ desirability back in the mid 1980’s. “It was considered too dark and clunky,” says O’Sullivan. Indeed, the very characteristics that now highly distinguish this furniture were once its downfall as much of this country’s inventory was undersold, destroyed, or lost.

But O’Sullivan never wavered in her confidence that the rich craftsmanship, attention to detail, and even the humor in Irish furniture would someday create a market and/or a second home for these pieces; therefore, she and a few other collectors banded together and brought the best pieces out of Ireland’s ancestral castles and grand homes. Then a funny thing named the “Catholic Tiger” happened: Ireland’s economy started to boom in the ‘90’s and happily, the once hither and yon furniture began to resell and be returned to many of the stately eighteenth-century Irish homes.

“One of the reasons I opened a store in New York was to locate much of the fine eighteenth-century Irish furniture that had left Ireland for America in the 1950’s and ended up in collectors’ homes,” reveals O’Sullivan. “Suddenly the whole world started looking at Irish furniture.” It wasn’t long before she found herself busily shuttling back and forth between two stores – on two continents. In spite of jet lag, O’Sullivan would always arrive with a welcoming smile for her international clientele and friends, from politicians to rock stars, who have come to rely on her eye for the best inventory. Her found treasures are always culled from relationships – never auction houses, which O’Sullivan describes as “over shopped.”

As for rare time off, you might find her out on the golf link but an eye is always kept out for the next great treasure. “The joy comes in the discovery but also in sharing these pieces,” says O’Sullivan. “Their wit and imagination brings the true Irish spirit to everyone.”