The Winter Show, now in its 71st year, is one of the antique and fine art world’s most venerable events—a 10-day extravaganza of curiosities, valuables, collectibles, and artwork, housed in the cavernous Park Avenue Armory. The objects on display are often the sort you’d see in a museum, in a vitrine in a gallery attended to by security—but they’re almost all for sale. (And, if you ask politely, you can touch them.) This event is one of the oldest antique fairs in the United States. It’s a charitable endeavor, an annual benefit for the East Side House Settlement, which provides critical community, educational, and workforce-related services for residents of the Bronx and the northern reaches of Manhattan.

There’s truly a treasure around every corner, if you’re a serious collector, a museum curator, or just a lookie-loo with an appreciation for the finer things of the past. The range is vast. For example, a booth full of ancient armor and antiquities neighbors a booth with delicate faience German chinoiserie and a soup tureen shaped like a parrot. Unsurprisingly, my eye at the fair was trained to seek out the surreal and the whimsical—an appropriate response to and balm for the various existential and actual horrors of the world that are starting to hit a little too close to home right now.

Here's what stood out at this year's fair.

Galerie Gmurzynka

Daniel Crouch Rare Books

One of the fair’s more showstopping moments was at Daniel Crouch, a rare books dealer based in London. They brought just a smidgeon of artist Jean Vareme’s personal collection of playing cards and other associated ephemera–touted as the largest collection in private hands. (Should you feel moved to purchase the whole lot, Crouch is selling the entire collection for a cool seven figures.)

Macklowe Gallery, Ltd

Amongst the sea of Tiffany glass on display at Macklowe Gallery’s booth, the Prism lamp stood out in part because it looks nothing like what you think of when you think of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Maison Gerard

Truthfully, if I could’ve lifted everything from this booth into a waiting U-Haul idling on Park Avenue, I would have. That’s just a kind way of saying that the collected objects and works at Maison Gerard were all so beautiful and interesting that it was hard to choose a favorite.

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Galerie Gmurzynka

Daniel Crouch Rare Books

Macklowe Gallery, Ltd

Maison Gerard

Milord Antiques

Didier, LTD

Joan B. Mirviss Ltd