When Mark Samsky was trying to think of a name for the antiques shop he wanted to open, Marc Charbonnet, a fellow alumnus from Peter Marino's office, suggested Ma Mere's Attic. "I loved the things in my mother's attic, and as a teenager, I sold things from it," says Charbonnet. "Mark has great taste and understands the good 19th-century Federal and American Empire pieces that I like." Samsky began selling antiques to friends while he was still working as an interior designer. Charbonnet bought some for Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan's apartment (AD, Oct. 1997), and John Maienza did so for 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft (AD, Oct 1998). Buoyed by thesse successes, Samsky set up shop in New York's burgeoning Chelsea Antiques Building, and already designers from Parish-Hadley and Jed Johnson & Associates have found their way there. Among Samsky's treasures are an English chaise, ca. 1850 to 1875, with unusual channeled leather upholstery, an American Empire center table and a ca. 1830 water-gilded French mirror. Samsky also has vases and other pieces of late-18th to mid-19th-century Old Paris porcelain, a favorite of Charbonnet's. Ma Mere's Attic, 212/953-5632.