Garfinckel's

Long a tradition of Washington, DC shopping, Garfinckels began in the early part of the 20th Century as a specialty store for Washington's elite. A new 8 story building went up at the corner of 14th and F Streets, just across from the Willard Hotel and the Treasury department. The store grew and thrived until a series of acquisitions and selloffs pushed the company to bankruptcy and final closing in 1989. The building (now a mixed use office and commercial site) still stands at the corner of 14th and F; the rest is the memory of those who shopped and worked there. It's all gone except what we remember.

This is a photograph from the January 2003 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, and features an Oval Office meeting between President Bush and Kofi Anan, Secretary-General of the United Nations. Of particular note are the Chinese Export bowls on the two lamp tables. (see enlarged inset)

During the last years of life, Garfinckels sold reproductions of these bowls, manufactured by Mottahedeh exclusively for the store. I have no idea if the bowls in this White House photo are originals or the Garfinckels reproductions. The Mottahedeh bowls sold in the store for $65-75 each during the Reagan years.

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