Meet Howard Williams | Gallery Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Howard Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Howard, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Im a perfectionist, all of our pieces are restored to what they would’ve originally looked like of the period. Our clients know that any piece they purchase will arrive in perfect condition even if they have only see it on our website.
I only purchase items for the gallery that speak to me, that I really love and would consider for my own home.
Custom service is incredibly important to us, we strive to make every step of the process as stress free as possible. From entering the gallery to the pieces being delivered and even after.
For me its all about providing the highest possible quality restored vintage pieces for our clients.

What should our readers know about your business?
High Style Deco was opened in 2004 by Howard Williams, starting out primarily featuring Art Deco furniture, lighting, art and accessories then expanding to include the best of Mid-Century items—resulting in a collection that represents the best of the 20th Century. In November 2012, High Style Deco relocated to a new six thousand square foot space that showcases their American and European inventory.

Inventory comes and goes rapidly, making High Style Deco an ever-changing gallery that enthusiasts, collectors, and designers have come to rely on.

Instead of playing baseball as a child, Howard preferred to peruse antiques stores along his native Long Island with his mother, herself a dealer in 19th-Century Victorian and French pieces. As a teenager, Williams saw the potential of his great-grandmother’s circa-1935 living room end tables and personally restored them in the family garage.

“If anything defines my store and my philosophy today, it is the memory of removing five layers of paint to reveal those tables’ history,” says Williams.

After studying art history and business at college in Pennsylvania, Williams worked for many years at a Connecticut-based commercial fine-arts publisher, but in 2003 he made the leap to pursue his true love, and opened his own store in Chelsea filled with the best of an eras furniture, lighting, art and accessories.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
What I tell friends who are visiting and haven’t been to the city before, is to do one of the Bus Tours. You can see all of the city and get on and off in whatever area you would like to explore.

Central Park is a must whenever someone is visiting, taking a stroll around the reservoir and stopping in to the boat house is a lovely afternoon. After you can always stop by the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is always breathtaking.

My favorite gallery to visit is the Neue Galerie that has my favorite Gustav Klimt piece, which is the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

I recently saw Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard on Broadway that I would really recommend to anyone who wants to see a show.

Jean-Georges’ restaurant ‘Perry Street’ in the West Village is a great place to really catch up with a friend over dinner. The aesthetics are really sleek, the atmosphere is always beautiful, the tables aren’t crammed together and the food is obviously delicious.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mother was an antique dealer. She used to take me with her as a child, which I loved and even at the age of 10 she could see that I had such a good eye for the pieces that she would say I was better than her.

She was a source of inspiration that lit a fire within in me to take the profession to another level.

When I was 12 years old, my parents took me to Radio City Music Hall. When I walked in I was blown away by the art deco masterpiece that it is, the place to this day is something I still take inspiration from and have sourced original pieces from the hall itself. We in fact have a Sofa from the hall in our gallery and many pieces from the illustrious designer Donald Deskey who designed the Radio City Music Hall.

Website: www.highstyledeco.com