City Life: Your Guide to Coping in New York
A Collector’s Items
Michael Doneff is a collector. A confessed flea-marketand yard-sale fanatic, he collects vintage glassware, old lamps and photographs, decorative objects and some furniture. He collects new things as well - it’s the style of the piece that attracts him. “It’s not about the provenance” he says, referring to the antiques collector’s concern with an object’s pedigree. “It’s about finding things you love, things with soul.”

And as can happen with a collector of such wide-ranging tastes, Doneff recently found himself about to burst out of his apartment. He put some things in storage, but it still

wasn’t enough, so a few months ago, he opened Nice House, a neat little shop in Greenwich Village, and filled it with lots of the stuff he’s gathered.

You’ll find a little bit of everything here, from $6 coconut-twig-and-glass votive holders to a $425 vintage glass lamp, rewired and ready to be plugged in. In between, there are glass candlesticks ($38-$45 a pair), charming vintage photographs and watercolors that Doneff has put in old frames ($65-$350), furniture from the '40s and '50s and art-glass pottery from the same period.

Doneff, who has a great eye for design, loves vases and has them in all shapes and sizes. Especially noteworthy

are polished dark-wood vases from Thailand in bamboo urn and teardrop shapes ($49-$80) and a small collection of handmade British ceramic pieces, delicately finished in matte pastel shades of blue, green and violet ($75-$95).

Boxes and candleholders are two more categories you’ll find plenty of, but they're not like any boxes or candle-holders you’ve seen elsewhere. A case in point are the sculptural handmade ebony turned-wood boxes from Mozambique, $28.

If you're looking for a fun gift for a stylish friend, consider something in bubble glass. Tumblers ($9 orange, light green, blue or clear-make great looking containers for

small bouquets (when you aren’t drinking out of them, that is), while the 12-inch-tall flared vases ($40) can hold a serious arrangement. Our favorite bits of bubble glass, however, are the ones shaped like old-fashioned pint milk bottles ($12). Wonderful on their own, they'd also look great holding just one or two long-stemmed blossoms. Or buy a few in different colors and line them up on a kitchen counter, and fill them with rice and dried beans.
- Isabel Forgang