All my antiques, oriental carpets, made in Iran, some of them and some jewelery came from Peshawar, Pakistan, also the home base in the 70's to the PLO leader, before Arafat!. Later on in the 80's became notorious as the Al Qaeda headquarters by Osama bin Laden himself.

So while I was walking around like an oblivious Canadian adventurer/importer/a little bit crazy, some would say, the Taliban was taking root and Osama was holding meetings, probably at the Pearl Continental Hotel, which was eventually blown up, while I would be sitting around looking at carpets and enjoying the amazing BBQ dinners they would have. Most of the hotels I stayed at from the early 80's were all blown up, one was beautiful and old, with a British Airways office downstairs.

Any westerners I would see, which was rare, seemed to me as a CIA or I5 agent, because bombs were going off so regularly it wasn't a joke. And that was in the 80's, so these people are totally used to such violence, as it's still going on as usual, only the groups fighting are different! I would always get stares as I walked through the bazaars, and some stares outright said "Boy would I like to kidnap you and torture the living daylights out of you before I slash your throat. In 2002 that scenario did almost come to fruition and is part of a manuscript I am almost finished, only needs a good editing for polishing sake.

That's a bit of the story behind any of my pottery items like this one, as well as any carpets I might put up for sale. I'm getting older now, my pension isn't going to be that much fun, so I thought I would auction off or sell some of these items that have a one of a kind story behind them, not just a rug made in a Turkish village by a poor little old lady whose been taken advantage of all her life so the smooth talking Turk can sell the se off the assembly line blah carpets. They do look nice in any room and I won't hold it against anyone who chooses that route to make their room at home more cozy and inviting.

JUST REMEMBER THAT POOR LIITLE OLD LADY AND HER KIDS TOO WORKING ON THE BORDERLINE OF SLAVERY IF NOT ALREADY ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THAT BORDERLINE!!!

Any questions whatsoever, please feel free to ask anything you want. I have a prologue to my book on a website I made and can add a link here if it is allowed to do that here. Failing that I can always send link to question's answer, if you are interested. Thanks a lot for LOOKING!!!