1950s Vintage MEXICAN FOLK ART Wood Bowl with 6 Pieces of Large Fruit

Mexican folk art bowls and fruit are usually made of pottery, but this huge oval bowl is made of wood---and so are the giant pieces of fruit. The bowl mimics the style of the Mexican red clay bowls in its color and its rim, braided with clay strips on the pottery bowls but carved of wood here. The bowl weighs 11 pounds 6 ounces and measures 2 feet long by 4 inches high. The total weight of this folk art centerpiece is almost 18 pounds!

There are six pieces of fruit, all hand painted in their natural colors. From front to back in photo #4, they include:

...a slice of watermelon, complete with seeds, that weighs 9 ounces and is 8 1/2 inches long and 4 inches tall

...a large red apple 5 inches tall that weighs 1 1/2 pounds

...a bunch of purplish grapes 8 inches long and a little over a pound in weight

...a ripe plantain, yellow, brown and black that weighs just over 1 pound and is 12 inches long

...a particularly lifelike mango 7 inches long and 1 pound in weight

...an orange, also 5 inches tall and weighing 1 pound 6 ounces

Both bowl and fruit are in excellent condition, with random, minor flakes off the paint on a few pieces of fruit and some paint loss on the bottom rim of the bowl. The set dates from the 1950's and is a wonderful folk art centerpiece.

PYH 5108