ANTIQUES : Making the Old New

IF THE TERM antique prints conjures up dull images of black-and-white bird studies, then you’ve never paid a visit to Emma-Louise Hayley’s gallery. The white walls of the gallery are covered from floor to ceiling with beautifully framed prints spanning the late-17th to early-20th centuries. There are early-19th-Century engravings of monkeys ($1,050 each framed), eccentric 17th-Century designs for fountains (about $400) and illustrations from the “Voyages of Captain Cook” (starting at $495 each).

Hayley, who scours Europe for her pieces, says it’s time for people to stop associating antique prints with the cluttered look of the Victorian period. “A lot of things that are very old can look very modern,” she says. “What I’m trying to do is create new ways to present (the prints) so that it’s possible to use them in contemporary interiors.”

Emma-Louise Hayley, 8642 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 657-9580.