This is a very simple piece, done I assume by country people, I imagine in Peru or Bolivia, depicting their way of life and executed in a naive and rustic style. (Of course, I suppose it’s equally possible that such pieces are turned out in their thousands by child slave labour in the sweat-shops of Lima to designs produced by ruthless capitalists intending to milk ignorant westerners of their last nuevo sol [kudos please for googling the peruvian currency] - but for obvious reasons, I prefer my first supposition.)

I bought this from a local emporium that defies all the rules of commerce by a) never seeming to have anything to sell, b) opening only very erratically, c) having no clearly discernable line of merchandise. As I can’t for the life of me imagine how they can possibly make any money, or even pay the rent, if indeed the shop is not theirs, I can only suppose that for the two ladies, one or other of whom can always be found on the premises, it must be a hobby - though they hardly look the part. At any event, there are items in this shop that have been stuck in exactly the same place for years, and short of an earthquake or tidal wave, seem set to continue to do so.

Which just goes to show, I suppose, that in retail, just about anything is possible. I have never seen anything like this on offer in this shop either before or since, so all I can say is that perhaps this too was waiting for me. I hope you enjoy it.