A.Therien: An Antique Gallery in Cairo
A.Therien feels more like a gallery than your typical Catskills antique barn. Here, rare books and utilitarian objects from the past—a 19th century pine box, a collection of stoneware spice jars, a rustic chopping block table said to be assembled around 1880—are displayed as works of art (with price tags to match their higher calling). If you’re looking to browse through a handsomely curated shop and splurge on a historical piece for your home, this is the place.
In the center of the space, a tall white bookcase doubles as a sculpture gallery. When we visited in August, each of its 15 cubbies held a careful display of stacked wooden blocks and artfully arranged pairs of small, masculine-looking bronze legs.
Artist Lucy Pullen created a 50-piece set of these signed and numbered sculptures. At the time of our visit, they were priced at $1,200 per pair. (Note: A. Therien’s display did not include the poetic and funny quotes included in the artist’s online gallery for UNTITLED (MALE FIGURES), which I highly recommend checking out.)
A “therian” can refer to a member of the subclass Theria, the scientific category for mammals. It can also refer to someone who identifies mentally and spiritually as a non-human animal. Therianthropy, according to Wikipedia, “is the mythological ability of human beings to metamorphose into animals or hybrids by means of shapeshifting.” My research on the name “A.Therian” sent me down the rabbit hole of skin-walkers and shamans, but I’m guessing that the shop gets its name from the mammalian definition. It is, after all, a place of objects made with human hands—objects that have been passed from human to human, withstanding and transcending the test of time.
Edit: After posting this piece, Stephen Elwood of A.Therien reached out to tell me that the shop is actually named after Alek Therien, “a mysterious French-Canadian woodsman that Henry David Thoreau was deeply infatuated with.” This fitting and transcendental namesake deserves a deep dive of his own.
At A.Therien, simple wooden pieces like chests, bowls, boards, frames, and spheres are arranged in ways that make them feel majestic. Walking through the shop gave me inspiration for putting my own favorite time-worn possessions on display.
As my husband suggested, you might find similar merchandise—a paint-splattered bench or a simple hand-hewn footstool—at any old cluttered yard sale. But at this Cairo antique barn, located on a not-so-quaint intersection beside a meat market and across the street from a gas station Stewart’s Shop, you might see those same old objects in a new light. From golden legs to rough-edged coffee tables, A.Therien specializes in the spectacular mundane.
A.Therien is located at 3026 Route 23B, Cairo, NY. Open Friday-Sunday 12-5, or by chance, or by appointment; info@atherien.com; (518) 900-5001.
