The Grand Bazaar is stuffed with merchandise, almost all of it inexpensive machine-made replicas from China. The bowls above are knock-offs of hand-painted, one-of-a-kind works of art, cranked out by the thousands … but every vendor, of course, will swear by his mother’s grave that these are “all authentic.” The asking price varies wildly. At one shop, these bowls — “much nicer than others, because they are made by hand!” — were priced at $15.00 each, while right down the hall another vendor had the exact same product for $6.00 each. (After bargaining, the best price seems to be around two bucks, a price you can get if you’re willing to invest about thirty minutes and a lot of emotional energy in your performance. I imagine the vendor gets them for around a quarter or so per bowl.)
Each of these fakes is stamped, ironically, “Made by Hand” and signed by a “designer.” When Clyde’s sister asked the most honest vendor we met, “Why do these say rhey’re made by hand when they’re obviously not?” he smiled and gave a refreshingly direct answer: “Because, madam, that is what they always say.”
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