Description
I really don't try to talk things up very often, but this is a really nice<br>piece. This piece has a really nice patina all over front and back. It's never<br>been to an auction house or online ever. I really don't know whether it's from<br>the thirties or the sixties. I don't think it's 19th century. It's good quality<br>with a nice patina. It's the kind of piece that would stand out in any<br>environment and match at the same time. It's made out of no telling how many<br>thousands of wooden matches. You have to examine really closely to see any<br>traces of glue, I'm talking like 6". At that distance you can definitely tell<br>the wood and the glue are at least 50 years old. Everything about the back says<br>it's old. Old rope, old nails, slight old patinated rust. It'd be way more<br>trouble to fake this than it's worth. That's probably enough matches to give<br>three people cancer. It's extremely intricate, I've seen other matchstick stuff<br>that was like jailhouse stuff from the 70,'s. Nothing even close to this. All<br>the work that went into this, this guy would've had to have a life sentence. The<br>woods are really nice, the back board looks like balsa wood, I don't know if<br>this is African or American. I assume it would be one of the two, but really<br>know nothing about it other than it's old and has the name Damala on it and of<br>course that it's in Austin and freshly exposed. It measures 33.75" x 25 15/16 to<br>outside of frame. No damage to report, it's old and there's some minor wear on<br>the frame, but it's clean. I don't know if DAMALA is the artist or the person<br>being depicted.
