Profile

Long a favorite of the city's film and theater prop stylists, Authentiques Past and Present is a veritable time capsule of American kitsch from the fifties and sixties. Packed into a three-part, attic-style room, the store stocks glass and barware, kitchen items and lamps, all in good condition and in unique, colorful styles. Baby-boomers longing for childhood comforts can heft heavy-bottomed original Flintstones juice glasses by the light of the shop's original mid-century modern lamps, all of which have been rewired by co-owner and former character actor Robert Pusilo. Authentiques also does a brisk business in vintage NYC postcards and, come the holidays, stays open extra hours as shoppers happily plunder the cache of vintage Christmas ornaments. — Carolyn Murnick

The "Present" in the store's name refers to a small array of stainless steel lighters, flasks and card cases, the only 21st-century items in stock.