Post #345602 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Nov 23, 2007 1:44 AM

Thrift store shopping here is not as rewarding as I was hoping it to be, there is very little indigenous art to be found. This area is populated by British retirees who cannot afford European places and come here because their money can be stretched that much farther, not because they want to revel in the native culture. So the stuff I saw was mostly below garage sale quality junk:

There were however a few items of African brass kitsch, but too big (or too bad) for me to pick up...yet interesting enough to photograph and post (I hope):

Here is a large tribal tray, quite impressive:

...and a checkered mask thingy:

And I did make a coincidental find: A Shelly Manne LP which for the first time showed me the interior of his LA bar,

...coincidental because I had mentioned his place earlier in this very thread here:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=26173&forum=16&vpost=341766

...and ironic to find this so far from its home town, where-if I ever WOULD find one there-it would certainly not be sold for a buck/fifty :)

AND I did find me a fine piece of primitive art, at a street vendor's booth, which had all sorts of modern junk, but only five carved African pieces:

We know that African craftsmen are masters in artificial aging to make their carvings look old, but this mask even has termite holes in it. If they go as far a applying bugs to age these, hats off!
For 30.- bucks, it will be a fine addition to my collection.

Besides, I kinda like the color scheme of the piece :) :