Purchases and personal finds

joshuaream

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Jun 25, 2009
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I'm normally not too excited about sharing purchases, but these fall into both personal finds and purchased relics. I collected them in the Caribbean 25+ years ago, sold them 15+ years ago, and bought them yesterday. (Islands are US territory in North America for the sticklers of if it belongs in this forum.)

I found 3 of the four items here on a single site, and bought the other one from a local buddy who also collected the same site. No way to tell, but I think the three green pieces were made by the same person/family (likely from the same chunk of material), the black piece is similar piece that is fully finished (and dinged.) These came from a Saladoid site, pre-Taino for Caribbean history buffs. (500bc to 800ad or so.)


I found hundreds of effigies and beads on these sites over the years, what made this set memorable was that it had a blank, a first stage, almost finished and then a finished example.


The Saladoid made a lot effigies of frogs. There are two main theories as to why they liked frogs. The first is that they probably started out in an area of Venezuela and Guyana where there are lots of little colorful poison dart frogs, and some hallucinogenic toads. The other theory is that at some point they moved into some of the drier areas and islands, and frogs/toads typically come out of the dirt when seasonal rains start (kind of a built in fertility symbol.)


Joshua

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MAMucker

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So interesting to see these!

I’ve not heard of them before. Are they made of a type of soap stone?

They are really special. Honestly, I don’t know how you could have let them go in the 1st place.

Congrats on getting them back.
 

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joshuaream

joshuaream

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MAMucker,

The three greenish colored ones are made of serpentine. Softish, but not quite as soft as soapstone. Some of the darker and more translucent pieces are harder.

Joshua
 

old digger

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Those are awesome! :thumbsup: Nice that you could get them back.
 

arrow86

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Really nice , congrats on getting them back I’m guessing they must have went to a good home when sold for you to be able to get them back
 

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joshuaream

joshuaream

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Really nice , congrats on getting them back I’m guessing they must have went to a good home when sold for you to be able to get them back

Actually they showed up randomly at an auction held in Philly. I just happened to stumble across them online and recognize them. Funny how that works. (The back side of the frame has my original sales listing.)

Joshua
 

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joshuaream

joshuaream

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Jun 25, 2009
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Really nice , congrats on getting them back I’m guessing they must have went to a good home when sold for you to be able to get them back

Actually they showed up randomly at an auction held in Philly. I just happened to stumble across them online and recognize them. Funny how that works. (The back side of the frame has my original sales listing.)

Joshua
 

quito

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Very nice!

I wonder, do you know if there are larger examples not as abstract in appearance?

in my neighborhood they say turtles are a fertility thing. Who would have thought pond creatures would play such an important role people’s lives.
 

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joshuaream

joshuaream

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Quito,

The bigger pieces are usually on pottery bowls. The stone and shell carvings are usually pretty small.

I'll look through my old pictures and find a picture of one of the bowls.

Joshua
 

arrow86

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Actually they showed up randomly at an auction held in Philly. I just happened to stumble across them online and recognize them. Funny how that works. (The back side of the frame has my original sales listing.)

Joshua

Wow that’s crazy , what are the odds of that ....I bet when they arrived you got as much joy as the first time around that’s pretty cool
 

welsbury

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None of my business Josh but after 15 years did you have to give more than you sold for then. That is a cool story.
 

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joshuaream

joshuaream

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None of my business Josh but after 15 years did you have to give more than you sold for then. That is a cool story.

My paper records are in storage, but I'm pretty sure I paid about the same this time around. I have bought a couple of pieces back for a lot less than I sold them for the first time, funny how that works.

Karma will get me, I am still looking for a personal find from when I was a kid that I'm sure will cost me a lot more than what I sold it for back in the early 90's.
 

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