The Old Breed

The sophisticated La Rocco clientele consists primarily of knowledgeable collectors, many of them in New York and Chicago. In addition to museum-quality furniture and accessories, the La Rocco ladies are attracted to children's wooden toys of several time periods. They occupy a display case at the back of the gallery. The La Roccos will often come back to the States with an odd piece or two, just to keep things on the slightly eclectic side. I saw something I'd never come across before: an Austrian bentwood rocker with a hand-tooled leather seat and a back worked in an Art Nouveau pattern. At $2,000, it could easily be the focal point of a North Carolina mountain cottage.

So what does Katherine collect? "My own home is full of '50s and '60s furniture and I've got an amazing amount of plastic," she divulges. But her treasure of all treasures is an original shiny aluminum '50s Christmas tree festooned with pink flamingos. The feathers are genuine. She adores that tree and is toying with the idea of bringing it into the shop for a holiday display. If she does, I am going to get decked out in a Lily Pulitizer lime green and yellow dress and have my photograph taken in front of that tree holding a piña colada and wearing my Ray Bans. I'll mail it to my Currier & Ives-type in-laws in Boston in response to their annual musings about just what it is we do down here without snow for Christmas.

The Source

430 Ninth St. N., Naples

261-3750

La Rocco Galleries

1010 Central Ave., Naples

434-5678

J.L. Rawlinson & Co.

370 12th Ave. S., Naples

263-1719

The Englishman

1170 Third St. S., Naples

649-8088