Design icons, now in stock

Tucked away in the buzzing new Nilaya Anthology showroom in Lower Parel–part gallery, part sensorial maze–are pieces that stop you in your tracks. Some are icons from the past century. Others are reissues by Italian masters or future classics by cult contemporary brands.

There’s Franco Albini’s radical Veliero bookcase, its cable-strung frame sailing across a room like a rigged mast. A baroque mirror by Glas Italia, made entirely in Murano glass. Porada’s Infinity tables that knot wood like silk. Paola Lenti’s lava-stone table tops, glazed like abstract paintings. And Finn Juhl’s Whisky Chair that’s part sculpture, part slow-living manifesto.

You’ve seen them in design museums, coffee-table books, at fairs and on design tours abroad. We picked these five because they carry history in their grain and still feel perfectly at home in the present. All are now on display (and for sale) at Nilaya Anthology.

The Whisky Chair by the House of Finn Juhl

Designed by Danish modernist pioneer Finn Juhl in 1948 and relaunched in 2022 by the House of Finn Juhl, the Whisky Chair was originally presented as part of his “Living Room of an Art Collector” concept. It never went into production back then, it was deemed too extravagant, avant-garde and too uncommercial even. And yet here it is, decades later, as provocative and perfect as ever.

Crafted in walnut and upholstered by hand in Denmark in textile or leather, the chair is defined by its asymmetry. One armrest gently unfurls into a half-moon brass tray, designed to hold a mouth-blown whisky glass made especially for the chair. It’s not a novelty add-on. Instead, the chair’s form inspired it. “To us, it’s nothing but extraordinary that Finn Juhl designed a chair that incorporates a glass of whisky,” says co-founder Hans Henrik Sørensen. “It tells you all you need to know about him.”

Infinity Tables by Porada

Designed by Stefano Bigi in 2009, the Infinity Table has become one of Porada’s most recognisable pieces and a symbol of the brand’s sculptural approach to solid wood. What began as a single round table with a glass top is now a growing collection of dining, console and centre tables, in shapes that range from oval to rectangular, with tops in glass, ceramic or wood.

The base is what gives it its name–two interlocking wooden loops in ash or walnut, curved into a twist that holds the tabletop like a ribbon in mid-air. “It’s a piece that defines the room,” says Mauro Nastri, Porada’s Global Sales Director. “You don’t need anything else.”

Porada, founded in 1968 in Italy’s Brianza region, is known for its deep respect for wood and an elegant design language. Bigi, who splits his practice between Paris and Milan, is drawn to furniture that evokes emotion and his forms are always soft and balanced.

The Infinity Table is most at home in a dining space with room to breathe, especially the larger formats that feature twin bases. For smaller homes, the oval version is more adaptable. Pair it with neutral-toned chairs and let the base remain the centrepiece.

The Sturm und Drang Mirror by Glas Italia

At first glance, the Sturm und Drang mirror looks like something you’d find in a Baroque palazzo. A closer look reveals what it really is–an intricate frame of hand-shaped Murano glass, built up in dramatic ornamental flourishes around a central rectangular mirror. Each piece is made through a complex, entirely handmade process, which means no two mirrors are ever exactly alike. Owning one feels closer to acquiring a unique artwork than a repeatable design object.

Designed in 2009 by Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni–whose practice spans furniture, interiors and large-scale architecture–the mirror reflects Glas Italia’s long-standing commitment to technical experimentation in glass. Founded in the 1970s, the company has built its reputation on pushing manufacturing limits, often asking glass to do things it was never expected to.

“Some people treat glass like it’s just a surface,” says Flavio Parlato, International Sales Director at Glas Italia. “We treat it like a material.” That philosophy is reflected here, in the mirror’s almost architectural presence. At 2.4 metres high, it anchors a space rather than disappearing into it.

Its name, borrowed from a 19th-century German art movement known for its emotional intensity, hints at what it does to a room–it disrupts it. You wouldn’t just hang this in a hallway. It belongs in a large, open living room, an entryway with volume or even a contemporary bedroom that needs a strong focal point. Wherever it goes, it won’t just reflect the room, it’ll shape it.

The Sciara Tables by Paola Lenti

Each piece in Paola Lenti’s Sciara collection is made from glazed volcanic stone sourced from Mount Etna. They are hand-glazed with thick, molten glass and joined together in unexpected patterns from leftover production elements. The results are tabletops that look like abstract landscapes with their surfaces uneven, glazed and unlike anything else in the room. No two are the same, not even in the same batch.

The tables are part of Paola Lenti’s Mottainai collection, a series that reuses recovered pieces from past production. This is not as a compromise but as a kind of design philosophy. They’re crafted in Italy with stainless steel and aluminium along with recycled lava stone and are meant to last for years. The brand itself was founded in 1994 by sisters Paola and Anna Lenti–one is an aerospace engineer, the other a designer–and grew from a small experimental rug workshop into a global name for radical, sculptural furniture that works just as well on yachts and rooftops as it does inside homes.

Though technically designed for the outdoors, the Sciara pieces work beautifully indoors too–especially in entryways, in dining rooms or anywhere you’d like to add a bit of colour and fun. Pair one with a sculptural lamp or let it sit bare–the top is a conversation piece in itself. If you're someone who resists matchy-matchy, this is your table. The irregularity is the point.