A year out of college, some friends were into digging for antique bottles in California’s Mother Lode region. I always enjoyed exploring and historical sleuthing, so I plunged in as well. My little world of esoteric collecting and fascination with glassware began robustly. The photo above shows Marla and I at our flea market stand selling antique bottles in Alameda, California, when we were first dating. Unknown to us at the time we were becoming “merchants” with many more life changing adventures to come. This post is on “Modest Size merchants of Marvelous Objects and Essentials.” I’ve always had an attraction for unique enterprises, fueled by passions, dreams, and a large dash of hopes and prayers.

I probably inherited the “merchants” gene from my great-grandfather, Owen Boe, who had a framing shop south of Market Street in San Francisco prior to the 1906 earthquake. He was an artist as well and displayed a few plein air painters from the area. After the earthquake he borrowed a horse-drawn carriage and took his framing materials and paintings across the bay by ferry. He eventually set up a new store in Oakland.

Marla is with our agent at a small furniture and antique supplier of ours near Denpasar, Bali. We were on the hunt for interesting things we could sell in the Wesco Fabrics’ warehouse and showroom. This company sourced unique wood carvings on Bali, Java, and Madura Island. And yes, we did buy these pottery pigs from the island of Lombok.

I’m channeling my early history of selling at flea markets. This small merchant sold primarily Thai and Burmese antiques at the Sunday Walking Street in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I purchased from him for a number of years. I’m in the bargaining phase for an old bronze Burmese Hintha bird.

I love looking at small stores like this one in Istanbul. They are using every inch for inventory!

The hard work of selling at a very wet food market in Ubud, Bali.

A thread merchant in one of the souks in Marrakesh, Morocco.

The Bangkok Flower Market (Pak Khlong Talat in Thai) is Thailand’s largest wholesale flower market with small flower merchants selling and making flower offerings for Buddha. The woman above is making an offering called, “Phuang Malai.” The scent at this market is fabulous!

Casa Rodriquez is a 109-year-old institution in Seville, Spain, for decorative trimmings, religious articles, goldsmithing, handmade fringes and tassels, velvets, damasks, brocades and tissue. I love that they are still involved with unique religious fabrics and trims! As an old textile guy, I had to stop and admire their enterprise!

Can you believe the size of these antique merchants stores at the Fuyou Antique market in the Old City of Shanghai? They are selling primarily jade, jewelry, and small antiques. I purchased a mineral specimen here.

Marla and I took our grandsons to visit the amazing Chatuchak Market in Bangkok. With over 200,000 people visiting the market every weekend, the Bangkok marketplace has become what some say is one of the World’s largest Weekend Markets. The Market has over 15,000 stalls which are spread across 35 acres and 26 sections which range from Food, Art, Antiques, Fashion and much more! If you love the chaos and supreme fun of shopping at small merchants, this is for you!

If your bicycle needs a little repair, where do you go in Beijing? It might be a tiny little place like this one in a Bejing Hutong.

If in Marrakesh, you might try this one in one of the souks.

Thailand is unique with all its many food merchants who provide dishes for hungry patrons from early in the morning to very late at night.

This small boutique in Ubud, Bali, caught my eye. They specialized primarily in bronze sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities. I bargained for a couple of “Kepeng” statues made from old Chinese coins. The look on her face says it all; maybe I should have bargained harder!

On one of our buying excursions in Chiang Mai while driving around with our agent, we spied an interesting business with no sign but unusual furniture out front. From this serendipitous moment we found our very best supplier for unusual natural furniture. Marla is pictured with one of our finds made from monkey wood or possibly teak root.

We sold a lot of Balinese handicrafts in our warehouse and showroom. Marla found a nice woven basket from Tenganan Village in the photo above. We arrived at this stall in the Ubud market first thing in the morning and were the first customer. After we made our purchases, the owner took our money and touched the stack of bills around her products saying, “good luck to me…good luck to me.”

We always are drawn to unique and crazy stores like this one in the Marais district of Paris.

The owner of this beautiful home furnishing resource in Chiang Mai shows Marla some of her new items. Over the years we could always count on finding something special here to sell to our interior design clients back home.

Marla and I have always loved vintage handwoven silk textiles. This small dealer featured some truly special fabrics in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Mar learns about beautiful rugs in Istanbul.

We had to stop at this tiny space in Shanghai selling jewelry and artifacts from Yunnan China. There are numerous ethnic groups in this region making very unique and distinctive jewelry.

You want to find an old cane? Well, I have just the place for you in Brussels.

A small furniture maker in Rabat, Morocco.

I salute the thousands of tiny businesses selling in outdoor markets around the world! This was a freezing day in Frankfurt, Germany, but everyone was out shopping.

The first photo showed how Marla and I became merchants ourselves. She had the DNA from her parents who founded Wesco Fabrics in 1946, and it was a gift which served us well over the years. We took the business in many new directions with both decorative textiles, custom window covering and bedding manufacturing, alternative window coverings, and eventually furniture and accessories, before selling to a competitor in 2017.

This is one of our Denver workrooms which specialized in making shades, cornices and valances, pillows and custom bedding.

An overhead view of our custom drapery manufacturing area.

Click on this link for how we originally got into importing furniture and accessories for Wesco Fabrics. We worked hard at sourcing items which were very unusual at the time. Many of our competitors copied our direction.

We did very well with teak root consoles from Indonesia.

I was in love with this fabulous Lychee wood slab cocktail table with burnt edges in the foreground. The Polished petrified wood tables were wonderful as well. All of those products were sourced in Bali.

Interesting tables and consoles from China, Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Marla in our showroom at the Denver Design District in 2013. I hope you enjoyed this story of merchants around the world.

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.