Legs Diamond: A 1963 "Swirl Ponytail" Barbie goes for $525 at Forty Fifty Sixty.   (Photo: Michael Kraus)

DOLLS

WHAT'S HOT? Fifties fashion dolls (like Ideal's Miss Revlon and Madame Alexander's Cissy).

FOURTY FIFTY SIXTY
63 East 7th Street;
212-475-4015
Ben Cassara and Joe Bucchi restore and sell dolls from the twenties to the eighties in their candy-colored East Village shop, specializing in vintage Barbie (from her first appearance in 1959). Prices typically run $125 to $1,700; the first Barbie goes for about $7,500.

THE NEW YORK DOLL HOSPITAL
787 Lexington Avenue, near 61st Street;
212-838-7527
Irving Chais, owner of this business launched in 1900, appraises, sells, and repairs antique and new dolls. Prices start in the middle two figures; coveted eighteenth-century Queen Anne dolls have drawn up to $20,000, but that market has cooled off a bit.

FOUNTAIN PENS

WHAT'S HOT? Mont Blanc limited editions; swirly twenties and thirties plastic pens.

FOUNTAIN PEN HOSPITAL
10 Warren Street;
800-253-pens;
fountainpenhospital.com
Here, floor-to-ceiling cases are filled with vintage pens for all budgets. A nice Parker from the thirties is $150; a super-rare Waterman with silver overlay runs $35,000. Repairs are a specialty.

BERLINER PEN
928 Broadway, near 21st Street;
212-614-3020;
berlinerpen.com
Patti Smith and Frank Rich have shopped here, as do hard-core Mont Blanc and Waterman collectors. A Waterman 420 with silver-filigree overlay just sold for $22,000; at the low end, a Parker 51 is $100.

GLASS

WHAT'S HOT? Tiffany "paperweight glass" vases.

LILLIAN NASSAU
220 East 57th Street;
212-759-6062;
lilliannassau.com
World-renowned for Tiffany lamps, glass, and pottery. (Managing director Arlie Sulka appraises Tiffany glass on Antiques Roadshow.) Beginning collectors can pick up a $350 mini vase; the seasoned collector might like the Wisteria lamp, first introduced in 1902, or a three-paneled glass screen made for a 1900 exhibition in Paris (she won't quote a price, but if you have to ask . . .).

All in the Wrist: Bakelight bangles are $165 and $475 at Mood Indigo.   (Photo: Michael Kraus)

KITCHENWARE

BERGDORF GOODMAN
754 Fifth Avenue, at 57th Street;
212-753-7300
Bergdorf's hotel silver department carries an ever-changing selection of English and Italian vintage silver-plate, from champagne buckets to oversize trays from places like London's Connaught Hotel. Featured right now: English cocktail shakers ($365– $1,250).

HOWARD KAPLAN ANTIQUES
827 Broadway, near 13th Street;
212-674-1000;
howardkaplanantiques.com
Kaplan carries select pieces of nineteenth-century French copperware in mint condition, from fish- and turtle-shaped molds to giant stewpots. In stock now is a big brass-handled triangular turbot cooker ($3,200).

MOOD INDIGO
See "Barware."

MAPS AND PRINTS

WHAT'S HOT? Early world maps (pre-1700); hometown maps and prints.

RICHARD B. ARKWAY
59 East 54th Street;
212-751-8135;
arkway.com
Map mavens looking for top-condition, rare maps, atlases, globes, and books on exploration and geography adore Arkway. Hundreds of maps are in stock at any given time; lately the first view of New York City ever published (1651) by Joost Hartgers is here, for $35,000.

MARTAYAN LAN
48 East 57th Street
212-308-0018
See "Books."

THE OLD PRINT SHOP
150 Lexington Avenue, near 29th Street;
212-683-3950;
oldprintshop.com
Launched in 1898, The Old Print Shop specializes in paper from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Maps range from $50 for a 100-year-old foreign map to an extremely rare 1743 map of Boston ($185,000).

MILITARIA

WHAT'S HOT? Revolutionary and Civil War material; anything from the Gangs of New York era; action figures.

MARTIN LANE HISTORICAL AMERICANA
205 West Houston Street;
212-620-7010;
historyonhand.com
Lane specializes in antique Colt firearms ($1,000–$50,000), but collectors can find almost anything military here, at all price levels. A few years back, Lane sold an 1875 Remington that belonged to Jesse James for $400,000.

KAUFMAN'S
Army & Navy
319 West 42nd Street;
212-757-5670;
kaufmansarmynavy.com
For armed-forces fanatics of all budgets. Rare items run from World War II pilots' survival maps printed on rayon ($50) to a Navy balloon-pilot's leather coat ($1,500).

Gold Standard: Stach's sold this 1933 $20 piece for $7.5 million.   (Photo: Michael Kraus)

POSTCARDS

WHAT'S HOT? It varies— "people look for the town they were raised in," says one dealer.

CARTOPHILIANS COLLECTIBLES
Box 903,
Cheshire, Conn., 06410;
203-272-1143
Shop in person or by mail, or catch this dealer at the bi-annual postcard shows at the New Yorker Hotel. Broad inventory includes thousands of pre-1940 cards, photo postcards, topical and foreign cards of African, Asian, and Latin American scenes ($5 to $25).

OLD BOOD SHOP
4 John Street,
Morristown, N.J.;
973-538-1210
Stock includes 20,000 prewar postcards, from state views (the most popular) to advertising to plenty of New York City. Prices run from 25 cents to $175, the latter for a set of twelve painted portraits of forties RCA stars (Spike Jones, Duke Ellington).

POSTERS

WHAT'S HOT? Toulouse-Lautrec, A. M. Cassandre, and Leonetto Cappiello and splashy Deco.

INTERNATIONAL POSTER CENTER
601 West 26th Street;
212-787-4000;
postersplease.com
Toulouse-Lautrecs are the specialty here, and an extensive library contains 50,000 works ($3,500 is the average auction price, but comparatively recent works can go as low as $50). Owner Jack Rennert also runs the world's largest poster auction.

CHISHOLM GALLERY
55 West 17th Street;
212-243-8834;
vintagepostersnyc.com
Specializes in ad posters from the mid-1880s through the sixties, especially those of A. M. Cassandre, whose works can top $50,000. But there's plenty for less— a handsome London Underground poster is $300.