NEWS FEED
Come in to the shop this week or weekend for some unique Father’s Day gifts. We’ve got options: the good, the bad, the ugly, the unique, the indie, the funny, the retro, the indifferent, the ironic, the green, the historical, the intellectual and the nostalgic.
You can also catch us at the Brooklyn Flea . Be aware that all the items pictured below are one-of-a-kind. E-mail us to reserve or check availability and pricing.
Happy Father’s Day!
And lots and lots more….
First of all, if you want to have a good laugh, read this New York Times article on Mother’s Day gift giving. And with it in mind, come shop at Windsor Place Antiques- We have the goods to make mom super-happy this Sunday.
Plants for indoors and outdoors in cute pots
Vintage Jewelry
Antique Prints (on every subject your mom might like)
*Get a FREE gift tag and vintage button pin with every purchase of a plant
We’re OPEN Thursday-Sunday 12-6!
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The April school break always reminds me of taking my kids to Coney Island. I have fond memories of the slightly seedy Luna Park and the grungy Dino’s Wonder Wheel complex- complete with carnival barkers and vintage rides. My kids, now teens, still enjoy going to Coney Island with their friends- it might not be as exciting as Six Flags, but you can get there on the F Train.
They’ve spruced up Coney a bit over the past several years, but it is still a pale shadow of what it was at the turn of the 20th Century. You can see the glorious Coney Island attractions in postcards from the early 1900s. I especially love the “tinseled” or glittered night time scenes from this period. Some of these cards were produced by the printers, while others were done at home with newly marketed glue pens and glass glitter. It is an interesting aside that the U.S. Post Office Department considered these cards hazardous as clerks often cut themselves, and began requiring that they be mailed in envelopes. It reached the point where twenty thousand tinseled cards a day were sent to the Dead Letter Office for want of a cover.
Another fun Coney Island collectible are tickets featuring Tillie. Our family occasionally rents a beach house in Ocean Grove, NJ which happens to border Asbury Park. I always wondered about the Tillie mural there and how it related to Coney Island. It turns out that Tillie — or a version of him — first appeared in the city around the turn of the 19th century, when George C. Tilyou, a showman who owned Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, expanded to Asbury Park and Atlantic City. George C. Tilyou himself was a fascinating character. You can read a bit more about him here.
We don’t have any tickets in stock at the moment, but we do have some other Coney related items- framed postcards, New Yorker and other periodical covers.
A very happy Easter and Passover to all of you who are celebrating these spring holidays. If you’re in Brooklyn, take a trip out to Coney Island and soak up some sun and some history.
***Please note that we will be CLOSED at the shop from Sunday April 21st through Friday April 26th for a short vacation.
Spring is finally in the air. The days are longer, the birds are chirpier and we’ve got some fresh picks for the new season. Among the most beautiful and prized prints from the 19th Century depict birds. The Victorians were fascinated by the avian world and lavished lots of attention cataloging and illustrating the myriad species. Birds are particularly colorful and beautiful. We have acquired two series that we are excited about.
The first is Thomas Gentry’s Nests Eggs & Birds of the United States
In response to the general public interest in natural history during the latter part of the nineteenth century, Gentry, a member of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science, provided a different perspective on the birds, showing them in lifelike situations in or near their nests. This provided an interesting addition to the viewer’s understanding of the natural world, as well as a delight for the eyes. Below is the cover, followed by a few of our favorite plates
The second is the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848–1855) This survey determined the border between the United States and Mexico as defined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which had ended the Mexican–American War. Twenty-five hand-colored lithographic plates of birds were included in the volume Zoology of the Boundary, edited by Spencer Fullerton Baird. These illustrations were prepared by J.T. Bowen and Company of Philadelphia, the same firm that had produced the octavo edition of Audubon’s Birds of America. We also have plates of reptiles, fish, mammals and ethnography from this survey. The bird plates, however, are lavishly hand-colored and among the more beautiful prints we have seen.
Come see the prints in the shop or visit us at the Brooklyn Flea across from Barclays in downtown Brooklyn. Only two weekends left to shop the indoor market. We move outside in April. Visit www.brooklynflea.com for updated locations.
In need of Valentine’s Day gifts? We have some sweet options for you in the shop:
Antique & Vintage Jewelry
Or for the plant lover, we have lots of new houseplants in stock in vintage pots… much longer lasting than cut flowers….
WINDSOR PLACE ANTIQUES 