Nicholas Brawer is internationally recognized as the leading dealer in giant naval observation binoculars of the 1920s through the 1950s.
Heritage Magazine for the Intelligent Collector described Nicholas as “truly a gentleman and a scholar…comfortable in any of the last three centuries. His eye for quality pierces the darkest corners of our collecting world.”
Established in 2008, the Nicholas Brawer Gallery recently moved to 1046 Madison Avenue, where it has retained its aesthetic characterized by Departures Magazine as having a “distinctly masculine—if not macho-vibe and an evocative, almost poetic, quality.”
Acquired by the world’s leading architects, designers and private collectors, Nicholas Brawer’s binoculars grace the finest estates, yachts, offices and apartments around the world, including 220 Central Park South, 15 Central Park West, 432 Park Avenue and One57.
These binoculars “represent a production ethos, an historical narrative, and a time when form and function were inextricably wed. Indeed, this is functional art at its finest—produced to the highest specifications and, yet, a beautiful work to look at, too” wrote Canada’s Sharp Book for Men.
“While the vast majority of these optical masterpieces did not survive the [Second World] war, the finest examples will invariably be found in Brawer’s gallery.” 1stdibs Introspective Magazine. “I can testify that the optics were stunning” wrote Ralph Gardner, Jr. in The Wall Street Journal.
Nicholas Brawer regularly exhibits at The Bridge contemporary art fair in Bridgehampton, New York.
A graduate of Columbia University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, Nicholas Brawer did extensive research at the Victoria and Albert Museum and worked as a research curator at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol, England. Brawer then joined Sotheby’s in New York, where he was a specialist in the Department of American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture.
Brawer is the author of British Campaign Furniture: Elegance Under Canvas 1740-1914 (Harry N. Abrams, 2001), which was described as both “fascinating” and “erudite” by Art & Auction and as “a rare animal—a scholarly treatise that’s also fun to read” by The Washington Post.
He also curated the world’s first exhibition of British Campaign Furniture at the Katonah Museum of Art in 2001, and is the author of the accompanying catalogue, Britain’s Portable Empire: Campaign Furniture of the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian Eras.
Brawer has published a number of articles on campaign furniture and decorative arts in The Magazine Antiques and has lectured internationally on the subject at New York University, the University of Wisconsin, the Bard Graduate Center, Boscobel House and Gardens, Sotheby’s, Butterfield’s, and the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair in London.