I wondered if this lamp 'shade' was made of ostrich feathers. You don't see ostrich feathers often anymore. In South Africa, ostrich feather dusters are quite common but that's about it. South Africa still has ostrich farms for meat and leather…
I wondered if this lamp 'shade' was made of ostrich feathers.
You don't see ostrich feathers often anymore. In South Africa, ostrich feather dusters are quite common but that's about it.
South Africa still has ostrich farms for meat and leather, but the days of the huge ostrich palaces built on the fashion for ostrich feather boas and hat ornamentation are long gone.
There was a huge feather market hall in the city where I grew up but it is now a convention centre. The market used to hold auctions, and the sold feathers then left on ships from the nearby harbour.
During the feather boom of the late 1800s, 450 000kg of feathers were exported per year. Ostrich farmers became immensely rich and built huge feather palaces.
After the world wars the boom ended and now the only export remaining is meat and leather.
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