After 34 Years, Designer-Loved Nick Brock Moves to Bigger Dallas Digs

And He's in Good Company

BY Rebecca Sherman // 07.05.23

photography Kris Ellis

Save Article

Mid-18th-century French painted panels, 1970s chairs by Frank Mariani
for Pace Collection. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

Carved and gilded 18th-century lion, France;
pair of George III petite knife boxes. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

English Regency Sheraton secretary bookcase,
circa 1800; 18th-century Chinese reverse painted
glass pictures; Louis XVI fauteuils, circa 1790. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

Doug Ohlson’s Capriglia Series II and III; Venetian console, one of a pair, from a William Haines-designed home, Beverly Hills, circa 1940. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

Grand Tour souvenirs; 17th-century Italian
vargueño. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

Chinese coromandel screen, 18th century;
19th-century Chinese ginger jar; 19th-century
French and Portuguese Palissy ware. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

Mid-20th-century German tole floral lantern;
collection of 18th-and-19th-century dog collars;
Louis XV giltwood console. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

Mid-18th-century French painted panels, 1970s chairs by Frank Mariani for Pace Collection. (Photo by Kris Ellis)

For more than three decades, Nick Brock Antiques was housed in a charming old shop on Henderson Avenue, its vibrant yellow door cheerfully beckoning. The designer-loved Brock, who specializes in rarefied antiques and decorative arts from the 16th to the late 20th centuries, recently relocated the store — now rebranded Nick Brock & Company — to a renovated 1950s-era warehouse in the Dallas Design District. The new location offers 30 percent more square footage (12- and 14-foot ceilings), a loading dock, and ample parking out front. Brock brought the old yellow door with him — it’s temporarily displayed in the window until a new one can be installed and painted in the original Benjamin Moore Yellow Raincoat.

“It will look more retail and a little prettier,” he says. Like many of the showrooms along Slocum Street — his neighbors are Jan Showers, Chad Dorsey, and Sputnik Modern — he’s open to the public, but his customers are mainly interior designers.

099 Capriglia_PaperCity_NickBrock_6.6.23_main — Doug Ohlson’s Capriglia Series II and III; Venetian console, one of a pair, from a William Haines-designed home, Beverly Hills, circa 1940.

Brock’s store features a collective of dealers he invited to join him, all with distinctive styles that complement the look and feel of the store. Inventory also comes from Brock’s frequent buying trips throughout the United States, and he’s always on the hunt for rarities at auction and from estate sales and other dealers.

“I’m never looking for anything in particular, just whatever reaches out to me,” he says. The other day, he got a call from someone with an enticing item coming up for sale (he declines to say what because in this business, discretion is paramount). He didn’t hesitate, even though it meant a nine-hour drive. “I ran home, threw some things in a bag, and was gone,” he says. “Sometimes you find nothing; this time, I came back with two items.”

102 Dogs_PaperCity_NickBrock_6.6.23_main — Mid-20th-century German tole floral lantern; collection of 18th-and-19th-century dog collars; Louis XV giltwood console.

Some of his favorite new finds currently on the floor include a 1977 Frank Stella painting, a pair of 19thcentury Louis XV-style bergères in vintage leopard silk velvet, and a petite Louis XVI chinoiserie commode by Claude-Charles Saunier, whose pieces are found in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“I love modern, and I love antiques,” says Brock, who has a master’s in fine art. “If it’s magical or somehow sexy, it works.”