Weekend Finds 2: BEHOLD, THE MASK

Good morning! Continuing with our week long tribute to things I somehow managed to buy and bring into the house in direct conflict with my "house is too cluttered!" diatribe of two weeks past, I bring you my most exciting score from the flea market last weekend.

My dad and I were SO. BUMMED. SATURDAY. MORNING. If you were in Nashville this weekend, there's no way you missed the pouring rain that made Saturday memorable. We actually got as far as downtown before the two of us morosely came to the conclusion that we would be unable to go through with it, and even if we got out of the car and sacrificed ourselves to the rain gods, who ELSE in their right mind would be out there selling stuff? Sunday morning, we decided to give it a shot and see if all the vendors had cut their losses on Saturday and left. Guess what? SEEMINGLY NONE OF THE VENDORS HAD LEFT.  Yay!

Don't look him directly in his eye! He doesn't like that.

Down in the old Mule Barn around 11 o'clock, there was one woman who I'm pretty sure had been drinking that morning, hollering throughout the stalls that everything in this and that stall was half off. "FIFTY PERCENT! WE CAN'T TAKE ALL THIS HOME WITH US! NAME A PRICE, YOU NEVER KNOoOoOoW!" She followed me into the booth as I picked up this great tribal mask. "What's the price on that? Here, gimme that, I'll go get a price on it," she slurred before I could even get my bearings. "Eddie, how much is this?" Eddie: "It's got a price on it, doesn't it?" Woman: [turns it over] "Well there it is! $35.Steal of the century. I would have marked it a HUNDRED and thirty five dollars. And it's half off that!" In spite of her truly horrible salesmanship, which made me want to scurry out of the booth to get out of her laser beam's radius, I gave her seventeen dollars and fifty cents. [Side note: who in the heck asks for fifty cents in flea market sales? That is insane...almost anyone would have just asked seventeen dollars!] I spent another three or four excruciating minutes while she refused help unraveling the bag she insisted on giving me ("I've got some nails, I might be able to--" "No, no, no no, no, I've got it, I've got it."  She did not have it) before the mask was in my hands and she was out of my life.

Don't be scared, it's just me!

Honestly, this was mostly an impulse buy (as I find a lot of my tribal mask purchases to be, naturally), but when I got it home, I was actually pretty happy with the size and color of the piece. Not to mention those sharp teeth! The mask is old and dusty, and while I don't expect it to show up on Antiques Roadshow any time soon (especially since I didn't get a ticket through their lottery for the 2013 season...maybe next year!), it's definitely not one of those World Market or Pier One reproductions (no shade...well, some shade). The SIZE of it was one of the first things that impressed me. The only other one I've seen for sale that was less than $100 was the one I already have hanging in my den, which might be Indonesia? Thai? Somewhere in that general vicinity. It was at Goodwill in Rivergate for a whopping six bucks (looks a lot like this one, but larger). YAHOOO! Once I get some picture hanging wire to put it up with, it will join its brother.

I really like the kinds of these masks that probably came home with soldiers or world travelers in the forties' up through the seventies'. My grandma had some Asian silk dolls on a display shelf in her living room for y-e-e-e-e-ars that my Uncle Harold brought back from his time in the service there, and it's funny to see that one touch of exotica in an otherwise 100% American-made household. Imagine the soldier or tourist going "Oh, we gotta get that to take home to Maude, she'll FLIP!" My dad and I, walking back towards the antiques shed:

Me: I think that lady was drunk, dude.

Dad: Well, you got you somethin'! That's good!

Me: Yeah, but it's probably haunted.

Dad: Ah, what are the odds that it's haunted...[looking at it appraisingly] I'd say abooooout fifty-fifty.

What do you think? Do you find tribal stuff to be too creepy for inclusion in your home decor? Here are some examples of tribal things from Etsy and Ebay I'd like to take home for my own:

** Fine Tribal EKOI Headdress / Nigeria **

Tribal mask from Kenya carved from wood-with beadwork

Baule Monkey figure, gbekre, Ghana, African Tribal Creations, art, mbra, Baoule

Tribal Mask Dress- 1960's Novelty Print Shift with Zebra Stripes

My house is going to be SO swimming in bad ju-ju if I keep on this path, but how fascinating are these little figures? And that dress!

Do you have any international tchotchkes laying around the house? Have any interest in objects from a specific cultural group or a fascination with a particular country? How likely is this mask to murder me in my sleep? Let's talk!

There's one more "stuff I got" post before Photo Friday...what do you think it will be? See you back here tomorrow! :)