Prague Jan 24 (CTK) – Products from the times of socialism are triumphantly returning and their sellers have no problems finding customers for not only furniture, but also a dental chair made in former Czechoslovakia, the weekend supplement of daily Pravo dated January 22 writes.
Adam Karasek and Jiri Mrazek have a shop close to the Old Town Square in Prague centre and they have demands from as far as Japan or from Israel, Pravo writes.
The two men have found a store for their products in a dilapidated complex of a factory in the previously industrial neighbourhood of Vysocany, Pravo writes.
It writes that in the past, Praga cars were leaving the complex, now furniture, decorations and all kind of interesting times from Czechoslovakia of the 1950s to 1980s are waiting here for their second chance.
“We collect and renovate everything we like,” Karasek said when explaining why chairs, lamps as well as cinema seats or an operable information board from Prague’s main railway station can be seen in their shop.
“I still remember socialist furniture from my youth, mainly polished furniture walls and imitation leather wing chairs, which I knew from Moravia. I have a very positive relation to it,”said Karasek, who like Mrazek is in his thirties.
When they decided to earn their living with selling retro items, they visited junk shops and flea markets.
People often do not know what valuables they are selling, they said.
“For instance near Prague, some people were selling a nice leather armchair and they did not know at all that it comes from the National Theatre,” Karasek said.
Sometimes a gem was found unexpectedly. “We found our first factory lamp by chance when we were passing through a village and saw it outside a cowshed. We found the owner and he gave it to us for a bottle of spirit,” Karasek said.
He added that the investment was worthwhile because the lamp was sold for several thousand crowns after renovation.
“We have even sold a dental chair. The buyer told us that he will be sitting in it and watching TV,” Karasek said.
He and Mrazek said they are no longer touring the country, but they spend most time browsing on the Internet and contacting people who are emptying their flats.
They also do a lot of paper work. “When we were sending furniture to the United States, we had to write dozens of e-mails and the cost of the transport was eventually higher than the price of the bought items,” Mrazek said, adding that it was worthwhile, anyway.
“Tourists do not have to take home from the Czech Republic only matryoshkas that have nothing in common with our country,” he said.
He was alluding to many shops in the historical centre of Prague selling matryoshka dolls, or Russian dolls, which are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another, instead of items connected with the country.
