Hunter and Huntress

Hunter and Huntress at 1665 Wisconsin Avenue NW is an antiques and home furnishings shop in the upper Georgetown commercial corridor, in the block that concentrates the neighborhood’s antique dealers, art galleries, and design studios between the main commercial district and the Glover Park residential boundary. The hunter-and-huntress pairing in the shop’s name suggests the complementary-pursuit character of the antique dealer’s business: the dealer who hunts for the objects that their customers are seeking and the customer who hunts for the specific piece that will complete their room.

The antique and vintage home furnishings market in Georgetown serves the residential community with the objects that the historical architecture of the neighborhood requires: the Federal-period townhouse that was furnished originally with English and American antiques is most authentically extended with pieces from the same tradition, and the Georgetown resident who is gradually furnishing the house over years of acquisition uses the Wisconsin Avenue antique dealers as their primary resource.

The decorative objects that Hunter and Huntress carries alongside the furniture, including the vintage ceramics, the early American glass, the printed textiles, and the smaller objects that make a room feel lived-in rather than decorated, are as important to the antique shop’s inventory as the furniture itself. The Georgetown resident who comes to the shop looking for a specific piece of furniture may leave with the set of vintage plates or the old watercolor that the shop has in the same visit.

Hours run Tuesday through Saturday. The Wisconsin Avenue antique corridor that Hunter and Huntress occupies at 1665 has developed the specific character of the Georgetown upper commercial block: the dealers and galleries at this address serve the neighborhood’s residential customer who is looking for the quality object rather than the tourist customer who is looking for the Georgetown souvenir. The customer who comes to Hunter and Huntress is browsing in the Georgetown tradition of the Saturday antique shop visit, in which the particular piece that becomes the morning’s discovery is not known in advance.

The combination of antique furniture, decorative objects, and vintage home accessories that the shop’s curated inventory offers reflects the Georgetown residential aesthetic: the well-furnished Georgetown home is typically assembled over time from multiple sources and periods, and the antique shop that holds a variety of objects allows the gradual assembling of the domestic interior that the Georgetown homeowner practices. Hours run Tuesday through Saturday. The eclectic approach at Hunter and Huntress reflects the Georgetown antique market’s specific appeal: the shop visit is as much about the discovery process as the acquisition, and the Wisconsin Avenue antique corridor at 1665 provides the Georgetown browser with the context of the specialist dealers and galleries that surround the shop. The antique buyer who finds the piece they did not know they were looking for at Hunter and Huntress is having the characteristic Georgetown Wisconsin Avenue shopping experience. Hours run Tuesday through Saturday.