A Fancy Store in New York City

Shopping

I've been looking for Fancy Repositories or Fancy Emporiums in the U.S--- needlework shops. I realize that I was too old fashioned in starting with Philadelphia where I didn't find much. Old fashioned because Philadelphia, once the largest city in the U.S., was by 1850 down to fourth in size. New York boasted 500,000 people, four times Philadelphia's population (and that was before they annexed Brooklyn). See a post of Philadelphia fancy shops here:
https://womensworkquilts.blogspot.com/2018/02/fancy-stores-in-philadelphia.html

Woman outside a hardware store in New York about 1870

With so many resident customers New York might be able to support some mid-19th-century specialty stores. The city was the center of retail and wholesale buying so out-of-town shoppers came to Manhattan too.

I read the papers.

In 1846 Henry Lawrence advertised his new

Fancy Needle-Work Emporium.

"Importers of zephyr wool, canvass, patterns, beads....selected by himself in Europe."

He was located on John Street near Broadway.

Berlin work chair seat embroidered over canvas 

with zephyr wool (light wool yarns)

Berlin work was a mid-century needlework fad.

Three years later Henry was with Lawrence Brothers at the same

location with the same stock:

"Zephyr and Fancy Wools, Perforated Boards..."

The Lawrences specialized in Berlin work supplies or needlepoint wools and cards. 

The customer base seems to have been wholesale buyers from rest of the country.

Berlin Work book cover partially embroidered on blue perforated cardboard

The Lawrences had some competition around the corner on Broadway from

Madame Alixe Doubet and her fancystore.

Broadway was the center of retail in Madame's day.

When fashion moved to Fifth Avenue, the shop moved too.

Alixe Pauline Jacquot Doubet Lauzin (?-1874) was probably a French immigrant. I found records of Madame Doubet's and later Madame Lauzin's shop from 1851 to 1886. She must have remarried after first husband Francois Doubet died between 1865 and 1872. He is listed in the shop but also as a glass cutter.

After Madame died in 1874 the shop continued under Miss A.E. McCarthy.

A receipt from the 1880s.

"Miss A.E. McCarthy successor to Mme Lauzin"

This customer Ms. Kimball was from out of town, Salem, Massachusetts. Among the items on her  bill: Ribbon, fringe and tinsel cloth & a cloth hamper (some kind of container to keep fabric?) for $9.

The shop also made up a pin cushion (for $5.50) and made up a red cushion (for $7) for her.

Beaded pincushion

We presume Ms Kimball did the embroidery and they finished the projects---a service needlework shops still offer.

Diggs's Lace Bonnet Store in Boston 1852. 

It looks just like Sarah's Fabrics in downtown Lawrence on a game day.

There are several things that fascinate me about these fancy shops.

 One---that they are so similar to our needlework shops today.

By 1860 Alixe and Francois were no longer living above their store

and she listed her business as French fancygoods

Two---I keep running into French immigrants. We forget how French this country was before the Civil War. We offered refuge to many fleeing for their lives. They tended to be the upper class (France did not have much of a middle class) and they were broke. They had to work. Even the future King Louis Phillipe who lived in the U.S. for four years worked as a teacher at one point in his exile. Their skills were minimal---just class, French connections, manners and good taste. Alixe Doubet parlayed that into a career in the needlework business.

Miss A.E. McCarthy's trade card. She offered

"All kinds of Embroideries, Monograms and Crests made to order.

Patterns and designs made to order."

Hand-painted Berlin work pattern of a Newfoundland dog, 

imported from a German state.

Collection of the Cooper-Hewitt.

Three---They drew patterns. "Patterns and designs made to order." Did they offer patchwork patterns too?