WHERE DOES IT ALL COME FROM?

Everything we sell in the Sunday Market has a history. What is the provenance, where did it come from, who owned it before, what kind of life did it have, and how did it end up on the flea market table? Good questions. We love to spin a yarn or two about our stuff, not denying the possibly of engaging in a bit of creative speculation when specific knowledge about an item’s true history is a but thin.

Sometimes shoppers also wonder where we get all this stuff. Different from the provenance questions, this one is often kind of compliment, acknowledging the time and effort it must take to find and display the piles of stuff we have in the market each week. The answer may be a bit more prosaic than the histories we like to spin about our stuff, nevertheless not without interest. Our business* is based on shopping estate sales and thrift shops. The trick isn’t so much where one goes to find this kind of stuff. The real skill the persistent junker** brings to the game is a knack for grabbing the jewels from the piles of junk a split second faster than the next person shopping the same place.

Lots of times I've sen Mary Jane grab something valuable of a table where I had just been looking, finding nothing.  But that's why she is out shopping on her own most of the time while I do the grunt work back in the office and workshop.