Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1225776
BY REBECCA SHERMAN. PHOTOGRAPHY PÄR BENGTSSON. WELCOME TO THE MYSTERIOUS, HIDDEN WORLD OF LOYD-PAXTON, DALLAS PURVEYOR OF RARE ANTIQUES TO PRINCES, PALACES, AND OTHER SUPREME MAXIMALISTS. I n 2014, more than a decade after Loyd Taylor and Paxton Gremillion shuttered their legendary antiques showroom on Maple Avenue, a private jet landed at Love Field. A man disembarked, four assistants in tow, and with untold billions of Chinese yuan in his bank accounts. Their limousine glided west, then south, past long stretches of industrial warehouses, commercial trucking companies, and empty lots with weeds sprouting from cracked asphalt. The car pulled off the road and into a labyrinth of parking lots winding through identical low, windowless buildings. It came to a stop in front of number 313. It was hardly an auspicious arrival for this hotel and real estate magnate from Beijing, but the trip had been essential. He needed to furnish his new 30,000-square-foot house in China, and this warehouse on the edge of downtown Dallas housed some of his homeland's most priceless heirlooms. The darkened-glass door to the building opened, and what unfolded must have been like a scene from The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy opens the screen door after the tornado and a dazzling Technicolor fantasy emerges. Inside the rambling building, room after room brimmed with Chinese carved cinnabar furniture, jade sculptures, centuries-old hand-painted screens, and cloisonné vases, along with Imperial pieces rarely seen outside the Forbidden City. Welcome to the mysterious, hidden world of Loyd-Paxton. O n a sunny morning in March, I arrive at the warehouse after taking pretty much the same route as the very rich man from China. Little about the industrial area seems to have changed, with number 313 still shrouded behind the same darkened-glass door and easily lost among the nondescript buildings along Irving Boulevard. No doubt about it, their previous Loyd- Paxton showroom, which opened in 1985, had been a glamorous place in its heyday. Sir Elton John, Truman Capote, Saudi Prince Faisal, and the Sultan of Brunei were all customers. Rare French antiques from Loyd-Paxton made their way into Versailles when it underwent renovations, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York purchased furnishings, including a dazzling Louis XIV Boulle desk that had been owned by the Sun King himself. When the showroom closed in 2000, Taylor and Gremillion converted this warehouse into a de facto showroom. Many of their clients from Mexico and China have private planes; the proximity to Love Field and the Dallas Design District made sense. Gremillion died six years ago, and Taylor has continued operating the business, along with the interior design firm they founded in the 1960s. He gets indispensable help from Paul Sanchez, who has been operations director for almost 30 years, and Keiichi Stevens, a tech wizard who manages the computers and lighting along with myriad other details. The building is kept locked, but Taylor and his team are there five days a week — just ring the bell, and someone will let you in, no appointment necessary. To celebrate the location's 20th anniversary, Taylor invited me to visit, greeting me enthusiastically at the door. At age 86, he's full of energy befitting someone half his age and is dressed in all black, including a pair of Ital- ian leather loafers studded with sil- ver spikes. He zips cheerfully through the showroom, looking for a place to sit and talk, but my head is spinning: The warehouse is vast, with at least a dozen rooms, each decorated more spectacularly than the last. We settle into a room dominated by a gleaming, nine-foot rosewood table designed by Kazuhide Takahama, the mid-20th- century Japanese architect. A massive antique French rock-crystal and smoky-quartz chandelier sparkles overhead. As in all the rooms, walls are covered in charcoal gray carpet that not only makes it easy to move artwork around but also creates a moody, gallery-like backdrop. Vin- tage theater spotlights aimed strate- gically at furniture and objects set a dramatic stage. Sanchez sets down a silver tray of bottled water and crystal goblets, and Taylor finishes telling me about his memorable client from Beijing. "We had so much Chinese inventory that we hadn't put all of it on the floor yet from the move to the warehouse so many years ALL THAT GLITTERS A mid-20th-century leather chair and ottoman by Adrian Pearsall, in pristine condition.