On a beautiful August afternoon in 2019, my friend, Kate, and I wandered into Martine’s Auction, also known as Martine’s Antiques, a sweet store on East 78th Street, that, I’m happy to report, has survived the pandemic.
Filled with picture frames, lamps, and prints, Martine’s is the kind of shop that you stumble upon a Manhattan side street and can’t believe your good fortune. The city was once filled with stores such as this.
Having lost my favorite letter opener years ago -- I’m sure I’ll find it if I ever move my couch -- I discovered a beautiful one while poking around Martine’s, made of brass and Art Nouveau swirls. It wasn’t until I recently found the receipt that I discovered the swirl at the end is a dragon’s head. I never noticed.
For the clerk, who I had struck up a conversation with, had hand written the receipt. It has my name and address and a description of the item: “Letter Opener with Dragon Head.” She even wrote the license number for the store on the bottom. What began the conversation was how lovely her handwriting was -- something I always notice and cannot refrain from commenting on, having practiced for years at the Rudolf Steiner School.
The clerk said she had grown up in Eastern Europe -- hence the handwriting -- and we talked about our memories of writing practice in all sorts of old school notebooks when we were children.
When I think about small businesses in New York, or anywhere for that matter, the items for sale are only a part of the picture. The other -- and for me, perhaps, the more important -- is the human connection. The conversation. The shared experience. In this case, the handwritten bill of sale is certainly the antithesis of a computer-generated receipt that will get tossed in the recycling bin. This one, on the other hand, is a keeper.
Clearly, someone else has been thinking about these side street shops, as well. They’ve created a website devoted to them: https://sideways.nyc/category/sidewalks/