Among new items at As You Like It Silver Shop are sterling silver goblets decorated with sculpted grape clusters and lined in gold by Mariah. You won't find knock-offs and cheap plated versions of fine silver patterns at As You Like It Silver Shop (3033 Magazine St., 897-6915 or 800-828-2311; www.asyoulikeitsilvershop.com). What you will find is a collector's wonderland of authentic antique, estate and new items, and a staff that can help you find obsolete items to fill out your collection.

As You Like It has had several homes around the city since it opened as an antiques store several decades ago. It started specializing in silver in the early '70s, opened a second location in Natchez, Miss., in the 1980s, and has been at the same address since Duncan Cox bought the business from his mother, Helen, in 1995 and purchased a building to house it on Magazine Street. Since then, Cox has worked on building contacts around the country to help him collect hard-to-find silver patterns and unusual items from estate sales, auctions and other places.

'We're exclusively silver,' Cox says. 'There's so much to know about it that we didn't want to branch out. I just really enjoy collecting silver. It's a passion for me.'

The store carries some exclusive product lines and helps customers find peculiar items they may collect such as cheese scoops or sardine forks. It also imports new silver from England, Italy and Spain. Some of Cox's favorite items, however, were made in America during the late 1800s.

'That was the heyday for American silver,' he says. 'There's a lot of handiwork that went into it, hand-engraving on a scale that had never been seen before and will never be seen again, in my opinion, in the United States.'

Shop for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity ReStore (2830 Royal St., 943-2240) celebrates its second anniversary from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. June 15-18 with a sale, free food, home improvement workshops, giveaways and more.