Here’s What’s Old With New Orleans Antiques

This charming city is well known for its good food, but it also is an excellent source for fine antiques, two passions to which locals readily admit.

“While we’re passing the time anticipating our next meal,” says Keil Moss, a New Orleans antique dealer, “we prefer to do it in style, surrounded by the finery from years gone by, cushioned in the charm of antiques.”

Antique shops are concentrated on Royal Street in the heart of the French Quarter, in buildings that date to 1800, which is just after a great fire destroyed structures erected when the city was established in 1718.

Antiques are more than a business to the Royal Street dealers; they’re a way of life. Most of the best shops are family businesses handed down from generation to generation. Some have expanded into dynasties, with siblings and cousins running affiliated galleries.

Prominently featured in Royal Street shops are English and French 18th- and 19th-Century furniture, objets d’art and some paintings. There also is some remarkable Dutch marquetry, as well as Oriental pottery and lacquered objects.

Each shop shows one or two masterpieces among lesser treasures. Many of the pieces are costly, but their prices are about 10%-20% lower than they would be on comparable items in Los Angeles antique shops. Some dealers will bargain, others have fixed prices. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Each shop is rather eclectic, but has an area of specialization. Here are some highlights:

Keil’s, 325 Royal St., founded in 1899, is the centerpiece of an alliance of three related galleries, including Royal Antiques and Moss Antiques.

Keil’s is a wonderland of carved oak, walnut and mahogany, with handsome dining-room sets, chests, sideboards, cabinets and all sorts of accessories attractively arranged into simulated rooms.

Large pieces are from several hundred to thousands of dollars, but accessories cost as little as $60 for a charming ink stand or $50 for a pair of simple brass candleholders, to $500 and up for crystal chandeliers.

There are usually several exceptional bedroom sets on the second floor, and serious shoppers should ask to look. Recently, the sets included a beautifully carved walnut masterpiece of bed, armoire and marble-topped night tables from a French chateau ($80,000). There also was a simpler grouping of 19th-Century walnut-with-wicker head and footboards with matching chest and free-standing closet ($7,000).

Royal Antiques, 309 Royal St., specializes in English and French country furniture. The quiet, peaceful and spaciously arranged galleries feature items that will work well with contemporary furnishings.

Royal Antiques has an outstanding selection of mantle pieces (from about $900), along with an array of unusual items. Included were an English walnut chair, circa 1800, designed to fit into a corner (about $500); a rough-hewn grog table, circa 1700, with sailors’ initials cut into it (about $4,000), and burled wood armoire, circa 1850, with legs carved to look like lion feet (about $3,000).

Moss Antiques, 411 Royal St., has fine smaller items, including bronze work, liquor cabinets and Baccarat chandeliers (from about $1,000-$2,500). A carved walnut dining-room set with an eight-foot table, 12 chairs and two sideboards just sold. It cost $25,000.

Also on sale was a “cave liquor,” with four bottles and 12 Baccarat crystal glasses (about $10,000), and a complete 160-piece porcelain dinner service that dates from about 1800 (about $17,000).

Established in 1919, Manheim Galleries, 403 and 409 Royal St., has 26 rooms of museum-quality antique furnishings.

One of Royal Street’s most prestigious and priciest shops, Manheim will send a limo to the airport to pick up patrons. Queen Anne, Chippendale and Louis XV furniture and accessories are featured.

Fine jade jewelry is one of Manheim’s specialties. On display are rare lavender jade vases and figurines of green jade, as well as jade bead necklaces and carved brooches. Quality is exceptionally high and prices are astronomical.

Waldhorn & Co., 343 Royal St., was established in 1881. Begun as a pawn shop used by impoverished Civil War survivors, the business was upgraded to an antiques emporium at the turn of the century.

Waldhorn handles English furniture, with emphasis on William & Mary, Regency, Queen Anne and Chippendale styles. To accessorize, there are superb Georgian silver and complete sets of antique porcelain table service with French and English marks.

Waldhorn also specializes in restoration of fine furniture.

One of the most important Royal Street antique shops is Raymond H. Weill Co., 404 Royal St. With an extraordinary collection of rare antique stamps, this shop is a Mecca for philatelists.

Whether you buy a stamp that dates from Napoleon’s days or an armoire constructed during the reign of Louis XV, you can avoid paying sales tax by shipping your purchase home. Shipping and insurance costs are reasonable, and Royal Street antique dealers are expert packers.

Prices quoted in this article reflect currency exchange rates at the time of writing.