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afraid of its trend power, but the quality was definitely there," he says. The lamp is a creation of James Perkins, founder of eccentric Aynhoe Park, a 17th-century Palladian manor in England that offers unusual art, furnishings, and curiosities for sale through its website A Modern Grand Tour. See suggested they place the lamp in the living room near the sofa, and any misgivings he had vanished. "We were trying to create a sexier, more feminine space, and that lamp did it for me," he says. "It's like a big, burlesque boa." Juxtaposed on the opposite end of the sofa is a rice-paper light sculpture by Isamu Noguchi. The two floor lamps may hail from different time periods and look radically different, but they are both delicate designs and therefore harmonize perfectly. Other furnishings in the living room, such as a Karl Springer-inspired shagreen coffee table and leather Christian Liaigre ottoman, all coordinate because their design influences can be traced to a single source: the illustrious 1930s French designer Jean-Michel Frank. It's hard to argue with brilliance. "Vladimir Kagan, Karl Springer, Christian Liaigre, Jean- Michel Frank, and Ettore Sottsass were all geniuses, so everything they designed works together," he says. "I love the story they tell. It's like having different interesting people in a room, and the more the difference, the better." See's favorite designer is Jacques Grange who, in addition to doing Hotel Costes, designed Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé's impeccably collected house in Paris. The interiors were done in 1971 but feel ageless. "Saint Laurent and Bergé were such avid collectors — so how do you design around that? How do you corral something like that? You almost have to art-direct it and be comfortable that a Charlotte Perriand chair is going to go with a gilded Louis XVI clock," he says. It's the design direction See has taken with his client's house over the decades. "What I love about this approach is that you are painting a portrait of the client. It's a reflection of who they are — their travels, their stories, their likes. A lot of what we do is interpret how people want to live. Your house has to make you happy." In the dining room, the large dome pendants are by Ingo Maurer. The console is Christian Liaigre. Stephen Eichhorn artwork from Carrie Seacrest Gallery, Chicago. Opposite page, clockwise from top: The back house was a later addition designed by Bernbaum/Magadini Architects. A koi pond runs along one side of the house. In the salon, a pair of framed custom designed fabric panels by Pierre Frey. Chairs and plaster John Dickinson side table from David Sutherland Showroom. 104