The New England Antique Shop collection

Historical/Biographical Note

Historical/Biographical Note

The New England Antique Shop was an antiques shop located on Charles Street in Boston, Massachusetts, during the early to mid-twentieth century. It was originally owned by Russian born Jewish immigrant Louis Palken (1883-1940). In 1926, Philip Rosenberg (1878-1951) and his business partner, Max Webber, took over the shop. Rosenberg was a Russian-born native Yiddish speaker who immigrated to Boston to escape rising antisemitism in the Russian Empire. He worked as a peddler in Russian and found work as a cabinetmaker in the United States. He found himself working in the back of The New England Antique Shop by 1922 until he took over as proprietor.

The New England Antiques Shop was well-known for both its high-quality antiques and reproductions to order. Rosenberg frequently bought from local New England homes and also traveled out of state regularly to find other items to sell and reproduce. At one point, Rosenberg even owned Broadhearth, the house located on the site of Saugus Iron Works, the first integrated iron works in the United States. New England Antique Shop was closed in 1949 as a result of Rosenberg's failing health. The contents of the shop were put into storage for nearly seventy years before they were sold via auction.

Sources

Lome, E. (Winter 2023). The Dealer of Charles Street. Historic New England, 23(3), 19-22.