SHOPS : Cowboy Comforts

AFICIONADOS OF THE Old West should love the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum Store. It’s filled with cowboy-and-Indian merchandise--from the kitschy (framed mirrors decorated with cowboy decals and fake jewels) to the classy (understated Native American rugs). The selection of Western books and tapes is outstanding, as is the kid stuff: a 2x3-foot bison floor puzzle, a choice of sheriff’s badges and suede vests, cowgirl skirts and chaps.

If you’re looking for Western hats and belts, this is the place. And be sure to check out the Stanley Desantis silk-screened T-shirts. For women, there are striking canvas bags and purses by Cowboy Classics, printed with a roping-cowboy motif on a red or blue background. For the especially avant-garde, there’s a denim duster painted with a rope-and-badge design.

Perhaps the Museum Store’s finest items are the furniture pieces: collapsible tooled-leather camp stools, and pine rockers and side chairs with beautiful cowhide seats (the chairs come with bleached finishes, or stained in turquoise, red or black).

An interesting collection of original leather and lodgepole pine furniture made by Thomas Molesworth is on exhibit through May 28. Reproductions of some of these pieces include keyhole chairs with a gunslinger motif; an octagonal card table covered with red leather set atop a giant pine burl; a slat-back armchair with routed arrow motif panels and red-leather seat, and a leather-covered armchair with moose antler “wings” and matching ottoman. Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum Store, 4700 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles; (213) 667-2000, Ext. 228.