The Merchant of Mahogany: Bernard Karr & Hyde Park Antiques

STAIR recently sat down with Bernard Karr, the founder of Hyde Park Antiques, ahead of our upcoming auction on October 30th, to discuss his love of English furniture, a shared family history, and more.

For over half a century, Hyde Park Antiques has stood among New York’s most respected destinations for collectors, designers, and curators seeking the finest examples of English furniture. Founded by Bernard Karr in the mid-1960s, the gallery quickly rose to international prominence for its connoisseurship and scholarship, with a particular focus on the William and Mary, Georgian, and Regency periods of furniture design and production.

Housed for decades in an historic 19th-century building on Broadway just south of Union Square, Hyde Park Antiques became a landmark in its own right. Its interiors were filled with museum-quality furniture, mirrors, and decorative arts, each selected not just for historical significance but for their enduring beauty. Together with their daughter Rachel, the Karr family created a destination that designers and collectors alike came to trust as a source where the rigor of connoisseurship was always paired with warmth and accessibility.

Hyde Park Antiques shaped the standard of taste for collectors of English furniture across generations. Its influence reached well beyond New York, helping to define a global understanding of quality and elegance in the decorative arts. From William and Mary to late Regency, highlights of the sale include more than 150 years of furniture, fine art, and ceramics across 170 lots, offering the penultimate opportunity to acquire works from Hyde Park Antiques.

Now, Hyde Park Antiques at STAIR marks the final chapter in this extraordinary story, one that has shaped the standard of taste in English furniture as well as the fine and decorative arts for decades. The Karr and Stair families have shared a long-standing relationship in the trade, one built on mutual respect and a shared belief in the importance of preservation, scholarship, and taste. STAIR is honored to present property from Hyde Park Antiques as a celebration of the legacy of the Karr family and their influence in the world of antiques that has helped define a global and enduring understanding of quality and elegance.

From William and Mary to late Regency, highlights of the sale include more than 150 years of furniture, fine art, and ceramics across 170 lots, offering the penultimate opportunity to acquire works from Hyde Park Antiques.

Bernard Karr often said his business “almost began by accident.” Having overfurnished his apartment with objects he loved, he was faced with the choice of moving or letting some treasures go. That early dilemma revealed the philosophy that would guide his career: a refusal to compromise on quality.

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