We've been treasure-hunting at Asia Galleries antique shop in San Francisco's North Beach for years. Today we went on whim, and learned that tomorrow (sadly) is their last day of business so many items in the shop have huge discounts.
The owner, Rhett Mundy, is packing up shop and moving to Masachusetts, where his warehouse is located, although he spends most of his time in Kyoto where he operates his other gallery - unless he's traveling the rest of Asia in search of more antiques. What a life! He buys directly from 15 different countries including Japan, China, Korea, Tibet, Burma, Thailand and has a great eye for the rare and offbeat.
We will miss this unique San Francisco gallery. Each time we stopped by there were more unusual oddities and gorgeous religious artifacts crammed into its dusty corners. Today I spied a tall Buddha from Burma I would have loved to have (if I owned a mansion), as well as some antique scrolls (a spooky-faced one with a $400 price tag) and old Japanese dolls. We ended up taking home an iron Japanese lantern for our garden marked down to $175 (we were told it's about a hundred years old), and something else I've always coveted: vintage glass fishing floats, about 3.5" with netting, $5 each.
Tomorrow, February 14, is their last day of business - go check it out!
Asia Galleries
1534 Grant Avenue
San Francisco
415.392.9127
asiagalleries.com
3 comments:
A shame,looks like a really interesting place!.
That is one of the things I miss living here in Arizona... all the wonderful galleries I shopped in Southern California. ( markets too !)
I want the iron Japanese Lantern and fishing floats...
So sad about the shop but it seems he will still be doing what he likes.
Yes, I'll miss this gallery and I'm so envious of this guy's antique-traveler lifestyle! I should have bought all those fishing floats, they were a bargain. But I didn't want to be greedy. :)
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