Real beauty lies in an object’s tactile and visual delight.

Award-winning former fashion designer, Christopher Becker, has seen and felt gorgeous objet d’arts pass though his fingers as owner of Antiques Art Design at shop 3, 115 Macleay Street, Potts Point.

He is surrounded by the sumptuous, the intoxicating, the mesmerising, the chic and elegant. It’s like working inside a jewel box.

He opened Antiques, Art, Design in 2015.

Christopher has lived in Potts Point for over twenty years, arriving here from London and Hong Kong. His training in men’s fashion design and his international experience resulted in a design association with Morrissey and Saba, menswear, for more than eight years, having operating a consultancy business in illustration and brand design.

In 2014 his home was chosen for its outstanding design and featured in two editions of Vogue Living. He has been interviewed for ABC TV and radio, The Australian Financial Review, GQ and QANTAS magazine.

Christopher’s eye for understated style and elegance has fuelled his career in the worlds of fashion, jewellery and interior design.

He is constantly intrigued and beguiled by the beautiful. His collection includes art, ceramics, jewellery, silverware, crystal, diamonds, gemstones and gilded panels. Pieces by Stuart Devlin, unique cufflinks and a solid gold bracelet watch by Cartier sit alongside a 1940s, 3.5 carat brooch containing 86 diamonds of various cuts in a complex arrangement set in platinum accenting the movement and shape of a gold ribbon.

“The provenance of pieces enriches them,” he says. He obtained a large colonial oil portrait circa 1840, 1m x 83 cm, of an imposing lady in black set against a red background within a gilded frame. Her great-great grand-daughter recognised the image from a magazine and contacted Christopher to inform him she had one just like it: the sitter was related to the Rouse family, early Sydney settlers whose famous farm is now the Sydney suburb, Rouse Hill.

His own favourite piece is a 2.5 carat Victorian silver and gold diamond brooch of a bird which is so elegant it seems to be in flight.

His boutique is best known for its Georg Jensen collection. Christopher is an avid collector and connoisseur. It includes a beautiful 1970s sold silver, hall-marked brooch in the shape of a bowl of flowers. The piece is marked “Georg Jensen” within and oval of dots, design number 67 and is designed by Georg Jensen himself. The Jensen firm’s hallmarks have changed a number of times since the firm was founded in 1904. Christopher assiduously tracks every nuance of this famous firm’s oeuvre.

“Good design is like good architecture: It’s not just how an item looks, it’s how well it performs or fulfils its function, as well“, he says.

His pursues his passion and offers valuations, appraisals, restoration and conservation work, bespoke design and takes consignments.

It’s a friendly store with just a small press of the entry button opening an Aladdin’s cave of delights.

Shop 3/115 Macleay Street (enter via Orwell Street) Potts Point NSW 2011

Phone 8937 0959 mob 0412 562 814 Email store@antiques-art-design.com www.antiques-art-design.com

Hours: 10:30am to 5:30pm Tuesday to Saturday and 11am to 4:00pm Sundays

By Andrew Woodhouse, Director, Heritage Solutions

Image: The beautiful and the beguiling: all in one location in Potts Point.