TRINKET TRADERS

[omarick1948]

Not to start a war, but I recently attended a so-called Primitive Rendezvous a couple of states over from mine and I was totally discussed at the Flea Market manure....yes, manure, that was on the Trader blankets. Is this the going thing that is going to happen to the traditional muzzleloading events advertised as an historic re-enactment? Examples of items being "Hocked" to the general public included: Pop Guns, Rubber Tomahawks and rubber bowie knives, all types of cheap made Hong Kong beadwork, rubber bladed and bambo spears, Cap guns of various types, wrapped candy and candy bars, saw blades with Mountainmen and Indians painted on them, Milk cans with painting on them, the world famous indian Dream Catchers,
plastic items with lazer etched scrimshaw items and on and on!

I asked the Booshway about this stuff and all he told me is that it pays expense's!!

I was really PO at this Circus, but to be perfectly honest. I have seen this in recent years at other events and so-called Early American Trade Fairs! I've been to juried events, but from now on. I'm going to tell the event organizer, that I am a juried Trader and want them to sent me photo's of wares at a privious event showing me the items being sold and vended! This may sound like I think that I'm to good for these events, but I still have enough pride to show and display my craft associated to the era represented as a Early American art form and not a Flea Market side show!

What is your opinion Traders and Craftsman!

 

[RickD]

I side with you

 

[trent/OH]

No counterfeit cassette tapes or CD's? Cheap coonskin caps? Pirate junk? Sounds like there's still a few steps to fall down before they hit rock-bottom.

 

[Claude Mathis]

It's all about the guidelines set by the promoter. Some are more strict than others.

Here's one group's guidelines...

NO “tourist trash”, plastic, iridescent feathers, t-shirts, posters, feather hat bands, ceramic figurines, novelty mugs, lamps, wind chimes, plastic goods, contemporary “Native American motif” or “Buckskinner motif” arts, crafts, or jewelry, (including dream catchers and mandalas, etc), crystal balls, dyed rabbit foot key chains or other swap meet items.
http://www.pacificprimitiverendezvous.com/trader.htm[/quote]

 

[ameling]

All too ... typical ... of many events open to the public. All too typical.

And then some people wonder where that RON-D-ZOO term comes from? Or BUTTSKINNER?

Yup, too many events have become ... flea markets ... but with a little more variety of the cheap junque being sold. If the main "purpose" is to just ... pay the bills, then go sell shoes.

Mikey

 

[MSW]

gotta side with you and Mike... if you've put the time and effort into getting as good at a craft as Horner is, you deserve a bit of respect, not sloshed in with the el- cheap- o yard sale stuff. the folks who want to sell that stuff have every right to do so, just as we have every right to keep the money in the wallet, but i for one find it irksome that a fine craftsman has to be included by inferrence with the makers of rubber knives and fake feathered junk.

just one guy's opinion.

 

[Coot]

Allowing mass produced trinkets that have no craft or historic value into an event is insulting to the genuine craftsman who has hand made their items and to the merchant who has bothered to do some research and tries to offer reasonably correct wares. It does not take too many pink rabbit skins and plastic popguns to destroy the atmosphere that many have worked hard to create. That said, the "trinket traders" perform a valuable service ... they make it easy to shrink the list of events that I want to attend down to a more manageable level! For an example of an event that is worth driving to attend, check www.graphicenterprises.net/html/martin_s_station.html

 

[Many Klatch]

Most of the events that I go to are juried. You don't see that kind of stuff. The serious reenactments don't allow junk. Rendezvous can be a whole different matter. It all depends on the booshway and segundo. If they don't care then anything goes.

Sometimes the nit picking police get a little too restrictive. At Fort Frederick this year one of the traders was not allowed to display leather hunting coats made to period patterns. The jury said that people in Western Maryland didn't wear leather in the 1750's. News to me.

I find the dream catchers and all the other chinese made junk to be offensive and won't bother going into those sutlers tents.

Many Klatch

 

[jethro224]

There's a "Rendesvous" held twice a year just up the river from here. Fort Creve Coeur. It's been pretty small the past few years. The public is welcome.
They try to have it both ways. When you enter the park there are food tents and plastic trinket flea market sellers right near the parking lot. Then you walk down a short path to the actual Rendesvous camp. Back there is where you find the better goods. Most still wouldn't pass jury, but...
Their spring rondy is coming up. I'll go check it out, but don't expect much. Last year there was a bunch of grumbling amongst the few participants about how the powers-that-be are wanting too big of a cut of the $$$ from the trade blankets. I heard rumors that there was another new/better rondy somewhere close and many of the regulars were there instead. I gotta try and find info. on that.

 

[ohio ramrod]

The "tourist" junk is the reason I usually avoid any rendezvous "open to public" and held in conjunction with craft shows.( The Oak Ridge Festival being the one exception. ) We need to have items for the younger set but we can and should have them authenic. Myself I am more likely to make enough to cover my costs selling wooden tops, ball an cup toys ,etc. Than selling tables and chairs. But the simple truth is if we don't cover our costs we cann't continue to rendezvous.

 

[trent/OH]

As an aside, didn't the early settlers/colonists trade cheap mass produced trinkets to the Indians for furs, food, and land?

 

[pichou]

There are plenty of period toys on the market, and other period kid/tourist stuff. But that requires IMAGINATION. Buying the same import JUNQUE as everybody else does not require imagination. So guess which side is winning? :shake:

Bottom line, though... it's the events that do the policing. If they don't care, who will put a stop to it? :cursing:

 

[omarick1948]

As an aside, didn't the early settlers/colonists trade cheap mass produced trinkets to the Indians for furs, food, and land?

I don't understand your comparison?..Modern M/L Rendezvous usually have few Indians with furs, food or land to trade! As far as having to sell junk to even go to events and support one's pastime. you may want to go to work at McBurgers and make wages!

 

[ameling]

As an aside, didn't the early settlers/colonists trade cheap mass produced trinkets to the Indians for furs, food, and land?

If only modern traders at historical events carried and sold the same "cheap mass produced trinkets" that those early traders did.

But the "quality" of those early "cheap mass produced trinkets" puts to shame the junque so many vendors sell these days.

Such is life.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[Lostrifle]

The "cheap junque" blankets, knives, cooking pots, etc, that the early traders sold to the indians, now cost upwards of hundreds of dollars.
A Hudson's Bay 4-point blanket(alright, not really "cheap junk"!) now fetches about $250. Cast-iron cookware goes for #50 and up.
Just goes to show that one person's cheap junk is another's period correct/historically accurate equipment.

 

[Smk50]

I agree for the most part, But I started out with some of the cheap junk, and as time(and interest in this sport) progressed, I gradually replaced said junk with more accurate stuff(and am still working on it) Though I agree with Rick, I feel the cheap junk has its place to "set the hook" so to speak. I got into this for the love of shooting, and got more hooked on history the deeper I got into the guns, so everything has it place, though not at every event.

 

[tg]

The Native Pow Wow circuit is the same I took some of my NA replica artifacts a couple of years with a friemd with whom I shared a spot as he was a tribal member and I have NA blood so everything was OK but most of the local Na's were selling the plastic stuff and I received a lot of frowns and mumbled comments, I showed several how to make arrowheads and was asked not to return another year,Buffaloe rawhide shields painted with earth paints and the like were not wanted as much as the plastic cheepo stuff the tourists gobbled up.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I was at one rendezvous where a fellow got really POed because they wouldn't let him sell tie-dyed T shirts out of the back of his van. :haha:
I could see that fellow's point however, they didn't inform him up front, they accepted his trader's fee and wouldn't return it when they threw him out! I'd have been POed too.

 

[jethro224]

This spring they tacked an add-on sign to the Fort Creve Coeur Rendezvous sign. The add-on said "Flea Market and..."

There were only about 6 flea mkt tables out front and a total of 10 tents set up in the rendezvous area.
I picked up a couple of $5 cow horns to help me pass the time. So it was worth the $2 parking fee.:grin:

 

[tecum-tha]

I was once at a Native American PowWow in TN.
Although the music (singers and drummers) were real good, all the merchandise was the poorest stuff I have ever seen. :cursing: I probably was the only one there wearing genuine braintan buckskins.I understand that, the fancy dancers don`t wear that stuff, but none of the traditional dancers had anything real authentic, only commercial made leather dresses etc. A great disappointment.
Even the PowWow princess would have looked 10 times better in real buckskins, although she was a georgous girl....