HOLIDAY HANDBAGS, Midtown

by Kevin Walsh

The application of gold leaf on glass is becoming as lost an art as are painted ads on buildings. Nestled above #5 West 31st Street up until recently was an etching advertising the former location of the Heimer-Brier Co., handbag wholesalers, who were in business there from 1950 to 1971. Prior to that, the Heimer brothers, Otto and Robert, with William Frankel and Austrian immigrant Morris (Murray) Brier operated the Heimer Brothers distributors in several area offices until Robert Heimer and Morris Brier opened their own shop here.

I was happy to get a photo of this sign in 2011, since when I checked again in 2014 it had been expunged from the window, and all remembrance of what had been the Heimer handbag enterprise is gone.

Info: The Indispensable Walter Grutchfield

12/18/15

 

1 comment

Peter December 18, 2015 - 12:34 pm

I rather wish gold leaf letting would come back into fashion. It has a certain sophisticated flair that other signage does not.

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