by Missye K. Clarke Meet Doyle’s New York, Sotheby’s little sister. This isn’t a public auction or hollar square dance gathering so indoor voices are requisite, thank you. The auction house, founded and helmed by Kathleen M. Doyle, Doyle’s New York, located on 175 E. 87th Street, is a lovely gallery of lots on consignment, auction viewing and bidding, and, like the ever-gracious hostess, holds reservation-only classes from How To Buy At Auction to Young Collector’s Evenings get-together that compliment the house’s rich history spanning two score and three years ago. According to their website, Doyle’s has catered to everyone from the Joe Q. Eastsider to dignitaries. However, Doyle’s is more famous for its other houses and appraisers being featured in living rooms across the country on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow™.” Collectibles of every style, setting, type and taste, from a recently auctioned fancy yellow diamond engagement ring sold for a mere $170,000 dollars bag o’ shells to a polished bronze Maquette for Divided Circle for a measly $32,000, rugs, dolls and maybe a lost Lou Gehrig will find its way to this lush collection and world renowned auctioneers. Walk-ins appraisals are encouraged at Doyle’s, but they are limited to Monday mornings at the UES locale. And, if you’re AmTrakking to our nation’s capital to bang the drum about Bush’s not doing $%*@ about closing the borders, visit Doyle’s offices for an appraisal in Georgetown. Trolling through an auction house isn’t your thing? Take a run to the other locales the UES was gracious enough to receive benefit from Doyle’s taste: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the MET, and The Jewish Museum. So, maybe a good read at Doyle’s grabs your eye, To The Queen’s Taste by Ellory Queen, imported and one of the few autographed copies an estate left behind, say. This book happens to be an authentic find, long outprinted and nowhere but online to go for it, perhaps? Take a stroll to The Black Orchid Bookshop and browse for other titles edited by the same Queen. What sets them apart from Strand’s 16 miles of books™, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble and Borders is their still in stock signed books from the year previous—and the fact this is the only place in Gotham to find mysteries here. From Westlake’s fun Help, I’m Being Held Prisoner! To an Agatha Christie rare collectable, 388 East 81st Street and other UES resident mystery buffs come to enjoy talks, book signings and other surprise visits. (And, it doesn’t hurt most of the book settings take place on the UES. Hmmm, Washington Irving’s Ichabod Crain and Legend of Sleepy Hollow doesn’t have anything on Michelle Martinez’s The Finishing School.) Visit www.ageneralstore.com for The Import Shelf, Monthly Updates and the Collectors’ Corner for details. And, when done book browsing in here, take your newly purchased mystery read and scoot two blocks down to have a sit in the oldest library in the city. The New York Society is a pretty neat architectural gem for being a bit over 250 year old. Founded in 1754 by the New York Society, the civic-minded group was created in the belief that book availability would help the city prosper. A subscription library, it now contains nearly two hundred thousand volumes -- the result of the tastes of its members over almost the last quarter millennium. Not as big or voluminous as the Library of Congress, but for an Upper East Side staple, it ain’t that poor a showing. Located on 53 East 79th, this ULES library is primarily for the general reader, but it has considerable potential for research. Holdings may be searched using either the library's card catalogs or their new online catalog. Members have book borrowing privileges and have use of several reading and study rooms on the upper floors; they can also browse in the stacks. Non-members are invited without charge to use the ground floor for reading and reference. Visit their site at www.nysoclib.org for hours of operation and more specifics. The library is also proudly affiliated with Project Cicero, which is a nonprofit book drive looking to bookand reference stock under-resourced classroom and school libraries for New York City public schools. (www.projectcicero.org). And, speaking of the book loving younger set---they’re getting antsy and hungry sitting around watching you big kids browse all day—The New York Society Library is offering their 4th Annual Young Writers Awards. Third graders to high school senior students are eligible in a fiction or poetry writing contest and, depending on their grade, word length is 750 for grades 3 and 4; grades 5 and 6, 1,000 word limit; and grades 7 through 12, their word limit’s 1,500 words. Deadline: In-person drop off by 10 April 2006 at 5pm, and by mail, the postmark must not be later than the 6 April deadline date. See www.nysoclib.org/kids/young_writers.html for prizes, rules and eligibility. Library visit over, and straight down Lexington you troop until you stop at 849 Lex, past Hunter College just two blocks. Hale & Hearty Soups is a great layover for a bowlful of steaming, belly-warming lentil soup. For the budget conscious (cheap, for those of you in Rio Linda), combo soup/half sandwich or salad specials start at $6.19 plus tax, provided the soup of the day or the house soup is ordered. Specialty soups are more, naturally … but where else can you get a smooth blend of split green and yellow pea soup or tangy tomato cheddar with a pumpkin soup hue? The place is immaculate, but the seating area is a bit cramped for one’s style. One plate glass window offers a view of the 849 Lex Av. passerby as you dine and the décor isn’t too bad for a soup chain eatery. And, the Hale & Hearty staff offers soup samplers of potential soups and a bean counter card: get 10 beans crossed off your counter—they’re the bean counters, ha, ha—you get a bowl of steaming soup on the house. Go in, have a sit and a side of sourdough and get a flyer. Delivery’s free, too. The coup de grac’ stop for the kiddies and the kid in you: a brand new spot dubbed A Bear’s Place. 789 Lexington is the home of the Paddington Bear™ and Curious George™ plush animals, shelves and more shelves of these to buy, bring home and love for hours on end and hours of play in sidewise. This place looks like a little girl’s playroom totally exploded. The colorful blocks that used to be sold in cans? Not here. These rainbowed building blocks of varying sizes await designs of state courthouses or copies of the highest turrets of Hogwarts. This establishment doesn’t have the bells, whistles and beeps most electronic gizmos have today or the impersonal feel of a big box toy store, either. The car tow toy is outfitted with black block round wheels and different colored trucks and cars on its trailer to download to an imaginary car dealership. Kids furniture can be tried and purchased here, little kid toys designed to the height of the wee ones playing store to school, all hand painted furniture, bedding, and other toy gotta-haves, is tailored to fit a specific room’s and child’s designs and tastes. Rocking horses and a four roomed dollhouse with a closeable door outfit one side of the paired bay windows. The other: Paddington and George stare eagerly out at Lexington Avenue’s nonstop bustle. Visit the store’s website to see the eye candy at www.e-abearsplace.com/Furnt.htm. And, back home you go, having enjoyed the things in your neighborhood. The UES offers an easygoing hospitality beneath its sometimes standoffish reputation, but the residents return such kindness to the merchants and nonprofits in kind—and visitors to that part of Metropolis get to see a part of New York words just don’t do justice. |
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