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Mantiques Modern

Opening Hours
Today: 10:30am–6:30pm
Wed:
10:30am–6:30pm
Thurs:
10:30am–6:30pm
Fri:
10:30am–6:30pm
Sat:
11am–7pm
Sun:
11am–7pm
Mon:
10:30am–6:30pm
Location
146 West 22nd Street
Neighborhoods
Mantiques Modern 1 Antiques Furniture and Home Furnishings Chelsea

Walking into Mantiques Modern is the equivalent of walking into a treasure chest. Full of antiques that grace the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this store offers not only an incredible buying experience, but an extraordinary viewing experience. While the largely pop culture-referential items, such as old Wrigley’s sculptures, handmade bicycles, carved skulls and massive seashells, were intended to cater to a primarily male, nostalgic clientele, there were plenty of women browsing on the days that we stopped by. In addition to the impressive selection of fun memorabilia, there is an array of photography, clocks, small tables and other furniture pieces. On a second visit, we were given a personal tour of the different century pieces that were particularly unique. A nineteenth century sterling silver Japanese flask from the Samurai era, a bronze clock that drips downward by Salvador Dali, a giant leather, classic Hermes handbag in perfect condition were only a few of the items that we gazed at in awe. While the store has rested on 22nd Street for just ten years, the owners of Mantiques have been in the business for forty, accumulating a broad knowledge that spans centuries, and a certain sort of intuition for choosing pieces that are “gutsy, cool” and one of a kind. We found that we could look up at a shelf for several minutes, walk away, come back and see something equally intriguing staring back at us that we had missed only a moment before.

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France & Son

France and Son is a delightful maze stocked with mid-century, modern furniture pieces with a contemporary twist. A bold array of light fixtures hang from the ceiling while a mixed assortment of modern and classic couches and chairs fill the space. I spoke with Brad, one of the founders of France and Sons, who sat in his favorite item in the store, a brown leather modern wing chair. Brad has been responsible for building the company's retail brand and online presence. Brad and his partner, Kevin Wu, named their furniture store after a pre-existing Danish manufacturer from the 1950s. They settled on the name France and Son because it was recognizable among designers and others interested in furniture. Today, France and Son specializes in reproducing pieces designed in the 1950s and 1960s. Similar to the original manufacturer, their store has a mid-century feel. France and Son is in the midst of expanding their work to include more contemporary, high-end leather couches. As Brad explained, “it’s all an experiment. ” They are constantly trying out new designs to find what people want. Most of their customers are young professionals who are buying their first nice pieces of furniture, so they try to offer everyone a personal shopping experience. The two men pride themselves on their ability to allow customers the opportunity to rent anything on the floor and to purchase floor samples. As Brad said, “We don’t mind catering to the customers and doing whatever makes them happy. ”

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The Pen and Brush

“We come together on the common ground of arts, letters, and women owning their own destinies, ” stated Executive Director Dawn Delikat. For well over a century, Pen and Brush has been dedicated to supporting women in the visual arts and literature. The organization was founded by two sisters and painters, Janet and Mimi Lewis, who were frustrated with being barred from art societies solely on the basis of their gender. Knowing of so many talented women suffering a similar fate, the siblings decided to create Pen and Brush to “stop asking for permission and forge their own way in the city. ”Though the group was nomadic for thirty years, it was able to purchase its first location in 1923. Decades later in the early 1960s, the ladies celebrated paying off their mortgage by dressing in their finest ballgowns and burning the contract in the fireplace. “Women persevering is as much of our understory as anything else. ” The organization carries the torch passed down by these remarkable women, whose members include First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and a number of Nobel laureates. Today, Pen and Brush’s goal remains the same, albeit adapted to twenty-first-century circumstances. As such, it makes space for both women and non-binary voices — better reflecting our evolving conceptions of the gender spectrum — and works to bring in the diversity that has been kept out of the canon “not for lack of talent, but for lack of access. ” To this end, Pen and Brush functions as an art gallery and a book publisher, where visual artists and writers from across the world can submit their work. The group evaluates submissions, seeking pieces “that need to be supported, ” either for expressing something that has not been said before or for demonstrating an incredibly high skill level. This has meant giving career-making opportunities to veteran artists looking to break the glass ceiling of their field, gifted students just out of an MFA program, and self-taught artists who received no formal introduction to the art world. Achieving true equality in the arts and letters may seem a daunting task, but Pen and Brush is tireless in its mission to give a platform to brilliant women and non-binary creators. “We can’t give up on them. We have to build into the future so that we can keep passing that torch, so maybe someday, it won’t be needed. ”