Rare Finds: The One-of-a-Kind Pieces We Can't Replace

Antique Dogon granary door, Bandiagara Escarpment, Mali — hand-carved with rows of ancestral figures

Most of what we sell we can find again. Our Rare Finds are the exceptions — antique and collector pieces that came to us once and, when they're gone, are gone. These are the objects we get most attached to, because each one carries a history that can't be reordered.

A door that guarded the harvest

Our antique Dogon granary door comes from the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali, where the Dogon people built their granaries into the cliffs. A door like this sealed a family's grain — its most precious resource — and the rows of hand-carved figures across its face were protective, a way of watching over what was stored inside. Weathered by decades of use, it now reads as pure sculpture, but every mark on it was made in earnest.

Then there are pieces made for status rather than survival — like our Yoruba royal beaded chair, covered in intricate glass beadwork. Among the Yoruba, beaded regalia was reserved for kings and priests; the sheer labour of the beading was itself a mark of rank.

Everyday objects, beautifully made

Not every rare find was made for a king. Our vintage Hausa bowl from northern Nigeria — woven grass finished with a leather rim, and historically used with cowrie shells — is a reminder that some of the most collectable African objects started life as ordinary, useful things. The beauty is in the making, not the grandeur.

Why we group them together

We gather these pieces under Rare Finds precisely because they don't fit a neat category — a door, a throne, a bowl, a flag. What they share is singularity: each is the only one of its kind we have, often the only one we'll ever have. If a piece speaks to you, it's worth acting on, because the nature of a rare find is that it won't wait.