On the same day that I found all of the Bakelite treasures, I followed Pamela Keech’s other recommendations in the “Chelsea – Antiques, Collectibles, and Vintage Stores” chapter of her excellent book The Curious Shopper’s Guide to New York City, Inside Manhattan’s Shopping Districts. First, I was greeted by a lovable pair of laughing lions. Maybe the Circus Center that Tangobaby recently mentioned should procure them. I think they are water fountains; how fun would it be to stick your head in to take a drink of water? Then I stepped inside Olde Good Things:
Keech promised that this was the place for architectural antiques. Staff members follow wrecking balls all over North and South America hunting for architectural treasures. I’ve heard of ambulance chasers, but I’ve never heard of wrecking-ball chasers. Once it was my turn, I got the undivided attention of one of the architecturologists. My husband is from New Orleans and I was planning to decorate our guestroom in a New Orleans style with a modern twist. I told her I was looking for vintage door hardware. Was I looking for strike plates?
Or was it escutcheons?
No, I was looking for door knobs.
Like these?
Yes, very nice, but do you have glass door knobs?
I guess you do have glass door knobs. These porcelain ones in this glass case look very interesting to me, do you have more?
My goodness! I’ve never seen brown porcelain door knobs before; I love the black ones.
You wouldn’t happen to have matching black porcelain cabinet hardware would you?
Pretty remarkable isn’t it? It turns out I couldn’t quite make a set of ten compatible knobs, but I have the photo and I was told that I can put an order in and they will call me when the wrecking ball scores some mates for these cabinet knobs. This is only one example of the depth of merchandise they carry. You can even own a piece of history and buy a piece of stained glass window by glass artist Robert Sowers that were excavated from JFK International Airport. Their website states that they have over 2,000 doors in stock. I believe it! Down the street, I saw a couple of light fixtures that caught my eye. This chandelier is not really my style, but I'd never seen turquoise teardrops like these before:
This light fixture, however, is very much my style:
Oh to have an infinite amount of wall space!
Next time, we go fabric shopping!
