Most of the antiques come from local collections in Masaya and Granada.

Antiques
Antiguedades de la Piedra Bocona

Story by Hal Moore. Photos by Cesar Correa. Originally published in Nica News 13 (April 1998)

Granada is unquestionably the fine old city of colonial Nicaragua. Its geographical position at the head of Lake Nicaragua made it the gateway to the world back when Nicaragua was the only practical way to get across the isthmus of Central America in a ship, the most efficient form of transportation at the time. Even prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, the pre-Columbian Indians used the lake as the best way to transport goods between the two great centers of civilization to the north and south.

Today, with Granada just beginning to be re-stored to some of her previous finery, it is difficult to imagine just how significant this inland port city was in the past.

During the Spanish Colonial period that followed the Conquest, Granada was as important as Cartagena de Colombia, because Nicaragua, with its vast supply of Indian slaves, was both a breadbasket and a center of commerce on the international scale.

The raging civil wars that followed Independence bled out both Granada and Leon, but the tradition of fine craftsmanship somehow survived. And even today, Granada is known for its fine carpentry and cabinet making.

The abundance of precious woods and cheap labor in a plantation society ensured the production of quality furniture well into this century. Since Granada was a port, imports from Europe and North America were relatively inexpensive and could be easily copied.

But it was the Sandinista Revolution that really turned Granada into a modern antique Mecca.

The old Granadino life-style did not fit in well with the social and political experiments of the 1980s, and the old capital fell into real decline.

Grand old homes that had been occupied and maintained for centuries by patriarchal families were abandoned as the wealthy fled the country after the Revolution. During the fighting, many say that some of the old furniture was burned by the revolutionaries as firewood.

	Religious art comes from private collections not churches.

But what it really took was a couple of revolutionary films to dust the cobwebs off the old furniture and bring it back out into the open.

The Sandinistas encouraged the production of two movies which glorified their cause.

One, of course, was Sandino, about the leftist rebel leader of the 1920s, but the other was about William Walker, the American filibuster who burned Granada in the 1850s.

In order to film Walker, the movie production crew needed to locate and restore period furniture for the sets.

They hired a couple of local artists, Harold Sandino and Pepe Prego, to find and restore the genuine antiques they needed.

This was precisely how Harold Sandino found his calling. Although there are other antique stores in Granada, like the one owned by Dona Mercedes Morales de Meza, whenever anyone thinks about antiques in Granada, they think about Harold Sandino.

Harold's grand old house, workshop and store is called Antiquidades de la Piedra Bocana because it is located just up the street from a pre-Columbian stone statue set into a wall that has a large mouth worn smooth by the generations of passers by who have given it good luck caresses.

The two-story house is filled to the high-beamed ceilings with restored furniture and fascinating antiques, most of which date from about 1850 to the turn of the century. There are also some excellent examples of Art Deco and Depression art from the 1920s and 30s.

One of the most spectacular collections, and obviously a favorite of Sandino's, is a large number of religious artifacts, some of which go all the way to the Colonial Period.

Harold insists that almost none of these came from churches, but rather from private alters and nooks in the old houses where patron saints were honored.

Antique guns and sabers were also in evidence, but when we were there, none of them were in good enough condition for a serious collector. There were even some collections of old crystal and silverware, but none appeared to be complete.
Most of Harold's customers are foreigners and the local residents who are buying up the old houses around the square in Granada.

Harold says that he thinks about 30 of these grand old villas have been sold and are in the process of being restored.
If you want to visit, you might want to call to make sure Harold will be there himself. He has all of the prices in his head and he is apparently the only one with whom you can bargain.

The prices of antiques have always varied according to supply and demamd.

In the case of true antiques, which are over 100 years old, there is obviously a limitation on supply.

Harold says that prices have been rising slowly but steadily and feels that this reflects the progress of the restoration of Granada to its former Colonial glory.

Like the renewal of the old capital, it is heartening to see that the finery of the past is still being appreciated in the present.