Swiss Trading Place Vends Quality

BASEL, Switzerland —  This center of intellectual achievement and cultural refinement has a history of progressive thought and free enterprise. It has been a trade center since Roman times.

Because of this, Basel merchants have traditionally had access to the finest material goods from throughout Europe; a situation that continues to this day. This characteristic gives Basel shopping a quality unlike other cities around the world. While the items for sale aren’t necessarily inexpensive, quality is the standard and it is applied to one-of-a-kind items that make excellent gifts.

Situated at the intersection of Switzerland, France and Germany, Switzerland’s second-largest city and among its richest, borrows the best from all three cultures.

Further, Basel’s position straddling the Rhine River, makes it Switzerland’s only major port.

The Spalenberg area, a reflection of the city’s character, features unusual merchandise in an ambience of superb and subtle charm.

Located near the Mittlere Rheinbrucke, a bridge that has spanned the Rhine since 1225, and the Marktplatz, a town market since the Middle Ages, the Spalenberg is a winding, hilly, little street with a unique selection of specialty shops occupying the ground floors of centuries-old buildings. Many of those shops specialize in gifts for the home.

Here are some of the highlights:

Atelier Baumgartner (No. 8) is a home decorating shop filled with contemporary furniture, rugs and lamps, many of which are handmade and produced either in limited editions or as one-of-a-kind pieces.

Of particular interest are the easy-to-pack gift items, especially the collection of glass objects, including etched Swiss-made perfume bottles (from $35).

Equally attractive are glass carafes in simple modern shapes (from $20) and a variety of vases and drinking glasses designed to suggest the smoky look of antique Etruscan glass (from $20 to $50 each). There are also vases that have been carved out of solid rock (from $23) and matching napkin rings (about $6 each).

Henri Robert (No. 10) rounds out the home furnishings scene with top luxury-label crystal, porcelain and silver. The range of merchandise includes French-made table settings by Bernardaud, silver platters and flatware from Cristofle and Lalique vases and goblets.

Several stores can help you shop for kitchens.

Stocklin Basel (No. 15) specializes in copper and pewter pots, pitchers, platters and other objects from around the world. Included are Swiss-made copper cooking vessels (from about $70) and Holland-made pewter platters made in rectangular or oval shapes and priced from about $400.

Wohnshop Bazar (No. 25) is an outlet filled with kitchen gadgets. A wide variety of plastic containers (from $3), plates and platters (from $4 each), and bathroom and desk accessories (from $4) come in coordinated colors.

Looking for cutlery of distinction? Toni Ottenburg Messerschmeid (No. 33) is a cutlery shop that was founded about 150 years ago and has been at this location since 1950. The shop features a wide range of distinctive table service. There are reproductions of antique patterns (about $8 and up per piece), including delicate bone-handled spoons.

Inexpensive and easy-to-carry kitchen gifts are found at London Tea Company (No. 26), which stocks more than 80 types of tea, from high-grade Sumatra or Darjeeling to exotic China Rose or Anis. Priced from about $2 and up per 100 grams, they are stored in huge, red, antique tins with gold lettering. Aromas inspire shoppers to sample a little of everything, and afterward re-order favorites by mail.

For antiques, look in Bum unteren Wildenstein Antiquitaten (No. 18). There you will find rustic, antique Swiss farm furniture and home accessories. Everything in the store is at least 100 years old. Stock includes a hand-hewn chest (about $2,765) made in Central Switzerland during the 1650s to vintage coffee grinders (about $80) and pewter pitchers from the 1850s (about $125).

It also has wooden rocking horses ($1,250 to $3,970) and huge multicompartment sideboards (from about $6,000). The shop offers a glimpse at life in peaceful Switzerland in decades past.

Johann Wanner (No. 14) outfits customers for two seasons only: Easter and Christmas. For the first several months of each year, the Wanner shop celebrates Easter with stuffed bunnies (from $10) and straw baskets (from $6).

The shop is then transformed into a bower of Christmas decorations and other delights, displayed in theme arrangements. Wanner’s chocolates and Christmas tree ornaments ($2 and up) are made specially for the shop. The ornaments are hand-blown and hand-painted glass fashioned into a variety of shapes.

While books may not furnish a house they do help make a house a home.

Buch & Kunstantiquariat (No. 29) is a tiny gallery that’s crammed full of old prints and rare books, dating from the 14th Century to the end of the 19th Century.

The owners rely on extensive catalogues to help patrons locate and buy any title on any subject. A sale box is filled with 19th-Century decorative prints of landscapes, town scenes and historical events and maps, many of which are of old Basel, and which cost as little as $12.

Prices in this article reflect currency exchange rates at the time of writing.