Browsing and Buying at New York Museums

Shoppers should be alerted that New York museums, and the phone directory lists about 100 of them, are not for browsers only. Museum shops, which once offered only catalogues, posters and cards, have expanded stock to include high-quality reproductions, original handicrafts and distinctive, sometimes exclusive, designer gift items.

Museum shops offer buyers ample opportunity with goods that reflect treasured museum collections.

New York’s greatest concentration of museums is on Fifth Avenue. At 82nd Street, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (largest in the nation, fourth largest in the world) has a multilevel shop. Its bookshelves contain handsome exhibition catalogues, tomes on artists and schools of art, volumes on costumes and collectibles such as porcelain, glass, silver and furniture.

Coffeetable Books

There are serious academic studies, books to grace coffee tables and those suggesting travel for art lovers as well as address books, post cards and an impressive array of greeting cards: Tiffany windows, Van Gogh in Arles, Winslow Homer watercolors, Calder animals (24 cards for $8-$10).

The gift gallery sells reproductions. A lovely letter opener and magnifier set (from a 17th-Century German carved ivory hunting knife) costs $75. There’s art glass: baroque decanters and glasses (1820s New England design), a 6-inch tulip mug ($35), cobalt blue glass bottles (19th-Century American, $28 a pair), emerald green glass pitchers (19th-Century American, $17-$28), Tiffany stained-glass windows ($60-$70) and crystal candleholders (early 19th-Century New Jersey, $65 a pair).

Ceramic items include blue and white plates and bowls of Japanese, English, Italian and Chinese origin, as well as porcelain table service, including a remarkable Tobacco Leaf patterned tureen ($600). Silver drinking cups (from 17th-Century Danish and German pieces) cost $200, $80 in silver plate. An 18th-Century pewter sundial for the windowsill tells the time in areas near 42 degrees latitude, or makes a charming paperweight in the tropics ($45).

There’s an Egyptian cat in solid bronze ($975) or an exact copy of the statue of the Goddess Selket (one guarding Tutankhamen’s tomb) gilded in 23-carat gold (limited edition, $2,250), or a 19-inch Aphrodite cast of marble and polymer and hand-patinated ($225), or Japanese Netsuke ($20-$40).

Jewelry Reproductions

Wearables include reproductions of jewelry from Egyptian, Greek Islamic and other collections, as well as scarfs, mufflers and neckties based on fabrics in museum collections.

The Guggenheim Museum (Fifth Avenue and 89th Street) shop is a small space, artistically stuffed with tasteful items, including one-of-a-kind artists’ “blank books” of handmade paper and exquisite bindings ($10-$25). Picasso scarfs, from the Manno collection, come in cotton ($16) and hand-screened silk ($130), each in a bright-yellow gift bag. For card players: an Artdeck ($10) picturing works by 13 artists. There are greeting cards, posters and a rich selection of books, especially on post-1900 art and artists.

Nearby, at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, the Jewish Museum shop features fiction and nonfiction about anything related to Judaism. The shop sells ceremonial items, many handcrafted, including blue ceramic Shabbat and Pesach plates ($130), a silver-plated kiddush cup ($25), embroidered hallah covers ($20), jewelry and a selection of menorahs. Calendars, greeting cards and other items (including a Jewish marriage contract) are reproduced from museum collections.

The International Center for Photography (Fifth Avenue and 94th Street) has books on photographers and all aspects of photography, as well as accessories for the photographer, including handsome Cadic design portfolios ($15-$20). There are also original prints by unknown-but-good photographers and occasionally by recognized masters.

New York Skyline

Nine blocks uptown, at Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street, the Museum of the City of New York shop offers books that chronicle New York’s changing skyline in the last 200 years or provide inside information on the history, culture and life style of the city. There are volumes on decorative arts and costume, children’s books, as well as date books, calendars, posters, cards. This shop is especially good for children.

There are dolls: Peggy and Teddy Rag Dolls (Edwardian reproductions) cost $13 a pair in kit form or $23 each for completed dolls; Kitty Cucumber is a limited edition handmade porcelain kitten in doll’s clothing that turns and sways as it plays Brahms’ Lullaby ($50); a Jumping Jack puppet dances on a pull cord ($28) and paper dolls have authentic period costume changes ($15).

There are doll houses and dozens of miniature furniture pieces to fill them, and toy theaters with sets and cardboard cut-out characters to stage “The Nutcracker,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Ali Baba” and other spectacles ($8-$20). Other toys include Made for Trade (a board game set in Colonial America), picture puzzles with historic and cultural themes, paint-them-yourself miniature trains ($9) and a Mississippi steamboat model ($30). The shop also sells unusual Christmas ornaments all year.

Across the park at Central Park West and 78th Street, the Museum of Natural History shop specializes in science books for adults and children, with an exceptional selection on astronomy and geology. There are reproductions of artifacts from the ethnology collections, as well as one-of-a-kind ethnic sculptures from around the world and attractive embroidered clothing, sweaters ($60-$100), jewelry and accessories from South America, Africa and Asia. American Indian handicrafts are a highlight.

Mineral Kits

There are mineral kits ($3-$12) and dinosaurs galore: replicas ($2-$15), kits ($4-$9) and stuffed pets, coloring books ($2-$5), totes and backpacks ($18-$20), ties and T-shirts. The Junior Shop in the basement sells small items (mineral samples, plastic and rubber animals, coloring books) at junior prices.

Midtown, the Museum of Modern Art (53rd Street near Fifth Avenue) has a two-story shop in the museum and an outlet down the street. There is a fabulous collection of books on art and cinema, cards, posters and calendars. Objects for the home and office are the epitome of fine contemporary design, many from the museum design collections.

For the desk: a helicoidal letter opener in sterling ($130) or stainless steel ($10), brass bookmarks (museum exclusive, set of three, $18), the sleek Alpha X telephone that remembers 225 names and numbers ($580), a Bauhaus table lamp ($690). For the dining table: Italian flatware, Finnish glass, a Japanese porcelain, including Mori’s white tumblers (set of six in various hand-fitting shapes, $50).

To sit on: Paimino scroll chairs of birch and black enamel (Alvar Aalto design, $985); Veranda low-back chairs, convertible to loungers (wool upholstery over articulated steel frame, in red and other colors ($2,130), also a two-seat sofa ($3,920), Thronet bentwood and cane chairs ($323).

For cutting: six types of designer shears to handle anything from poultry to pinking ($15-$25). For kids: kites ($40-$60), trikes ($145) and tents ($330) or a Bauhaus chess set (pieces and board, $170).

Folk Art Museum

The Museum of American Folk Art’s three shops (in the museum at 125 West 55th Street and at 55 West 53rd Street and in the Rockefeller Promenade at 610 Fifth Avenue) sell decorative arts done in the folk art tradition, ranging from necklaces made from comic strips ($3) to wooden whirligigs (Uncle Sams, Abe Lincolns and others, $70-$90) and weather vanes. Decoys range from paperweights ($6) to full-size geese ($300). In addition: original art, including theorems and frakturs, and folk art books ranging from academic studies to how-to’s.

In SoHo, the Museum of Holography (11 Mercer St.) sells unusual holograms ($2-$1,000), as well as attention-getting wearables such as tie tacks and earrings ($9-$110). For children, there are defraction glasses ($4) and dazer tops that spin white light into rainbows ($6). Also, books on holography.

The Brooklyn Museum (188 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn), the city’s second largest museum, has two shops. The Gallery Shop has one-of-a-kind artifacts and crafts from around the world: hand-blown Mexican glass bowls ($225), Peruvian rugs ($235), Afghan Ikat jackets ($225), Chinese Cinnabar necklaces ($42). There are vintage costume jewelry from 1920-’40 and Indian beaded necklaces ($10-$35).

The Kidsmart sells innovative toys: Indian bamboo and reed flutes, matchbook puzzles, kits for paper bag mask-making ($13), make-your-own mobile kits ($5) and informative board games such as Jove (classical myths). Both shops have excellent books.

Nearby on Eastern Parkway, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens shop offers great gardening books, tools and seeds.

Most of the shops mentioned give a 10%-15% discount to museum members. Admission fees are not required for access to shops.