BY ZACH WILLIAMS | Brushes with history are inevitable at Archangel Antiques. The pictures they paint of the closing 21-year-old store tell as much as the diverse inventory of premium keepsakes.
The two-storefront business occupying two connected basement railroad car-style spaces, at 334 E. Ninth St., between First and Second Aves., will start emptying out at the end of May with a final closing by June 30.
Two owners eager to unload an eclectic accumulation of vintage clothing and other artifacts of bygone eras will then embark on a fresh leg of a three-decade journey in the antique business, and a new chapter in their lives, while one longtime store manager with tales to tell of his own awaits the possibilities following a long summer in the sun.
Increasing rent pressure, as well as the divergent tastes of a younger generation, are reasons for seeking an exit to the business, which co-owner Gail, who requested her last name be omitted fearing harassment via telephone, started with her longtime partner, Richard.
The pairing began when Gail and Richard met at the Canal St. Flea Market in the ’70s. They opened their store at the present location in 1982 and will continue through an online Web site she has set her sights on mastering.
They maintain their own sides of the business, with her room devoted primarily to clothing as old as the 19th century, as well as what she described as 1 million buttons. The quick-witted merchant has a response for anyone challenging her contention — but he or she better keep an accurate count.
“Then you get a free button if I’m wrong” said the longtime Queens resident.
Richard’s side contains items as diverse as a portable Decca phonograph player, tin-plate snapshots of “instant ancestors” and a taxidermied badger seemingly poised to pounce on elephants hiding below an African-shaped tabletop.
“You really have to have patience and curiosity,” she said of noticing interesting objects, like a pterodactyl-looking beast, sculpted from a repurposed shovel, which hovers above it all.
The appeal and financial prospects of a shop showcasing historical curiosities in the East Village has waned, she said. Artist types have left for Brooklyn and younger residents seem to prefer cheaper, modern products and imitations rather than Archangel Antiques’ pricey but ultimately authentic wares, she added.
She felt a similar dissonance with the times back when the “weird” styles of the ’70s inspired her to dress as if it were 30 years before. Soon, she extended her business interests beyond yoga and psychotherapy to the sale of garments spanning from the Victorian to late Cold War era.
Her devotion to the value in the appearances of the past has earned a steady clientele of patrons seeking the ideal thing from the right time.
Among them on a recent Friday afternoon was the purchaser of a cotton floral print dress, ideal for a fashionable young lady in the ’60s and the purposes of an upcoming video project in Montreal about poet Dylan Thomas called “Dominion.”
“I’ve known about them for years,” said costume designer Molly Maginnis, who has browsed the shop in the past for other projects, such as accouterments for the actress portraying Marilyn Monroe in a NBC TV program called “Smash.”
A local artist seeking the right fabrics for patches and an Upper East Side apron-maker were also spending some time in the store searching for the ideal material muse.
But no feature of the business speaks more than longtime manager Michael Duggan, a former scion of Allentown, Penn., steel wealth who turned to truck driving before becoming fashion and design confidant to the New York City elite. Detailed recollections of European royalty, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the recently deceased Rene Ricard from Andy Warhol’s Factory are mere prefaces to lengthy and eloquent dissertations on his areas of expertise in the history of American fashion and the distinctive qualities of Bourbon French interior design.
However, the hundreds of dollars spent to acquire a beautiful, hand-beaded suede blouse or a James Dean-style, high-riding leather jacket is an extravagance that can be had for far less, albeit in an imitation, according to Duggan.
“Why do we care about things we just toss?” he said. “Nowadays, people are interested in holding onto a moment, not living that experience.”
