PACIFIC + SOUTHWEST. Small Stash / Trinket Box, c. prior to 2000.
Something about the illustration here of a surfer catching a wave made us think it might be indicative of time before the sport really caught on in this country. Its subject looks as if he is from the 1930s or 40s, and surfing hit big in America in the 1950s once people began seeing it through television shows and movies. Of course enthusiasts had been riding waves on their boards for quite a while, beginning stateside in 1885 when royal princes from the then sovereign island nation of Hawai’i visited Santa Cruz and introduced the sport to Californians. A new throng of devotees sanded down their own redwood boards and joined in the fun. Surfing went bicoastal by 1909, as pioneering participants on the East Coast tested out the waters off of North Carolina’s Wrightsville Beach. And yet a surfer type lifestyle remained especially associated with California, where a pop culture phenomena grew up around it, including a signature musical sound. So the illustration on this slick black plastic match holder or stash box likely shows a West Coast surfer. We were not able to verify an artist or when it was drawn, and it might even have been created in homage to an earlier era of the sport’s practitioners. The culture surrounding surfing has always been one of good vibrations and fellowship. That is why we like to think this little slide-drawered pocket carrier holds positivity as well. Hang loose, friends. [Condition: Like New.]
Condition: Like New. Local / Regional Attractions. Dimensions: 1.75” wide x 2.75” high x 1” deep / 1 oz
