The American home is replete with all manner of overpriced baubles and trinkets. But is your idlic suburban ranch house truly complete with an $85 rock in a bespoke leather pouch? Nordstrom thinks not.
“Medium Leather Wrapped Stone,” as it’s referred to on the Nordstrom store, is made by artist Peter Maxwell out of “smooth Los Angeles-area stone”—a city I had previously not associated with quarries. The 115-year-old retail chain seems, like you, not to know what exactly it is they’re selling. Medium Leather Wrapped Stone’s product description begins with a series of questions, almost as though it’s talking you out of buying one. “A paperweight? A conversation piece? A work of art?” it probes before ultimately concluding that the function and purpose of a rock in a bag is “up to you.”
$85 is a lot to pay for a total mystery. Thankfully, a smaller version existsfor the reduced price of $65. Rocks come in sizes!
Far better than a stone in a sock made of animal skin is the comments made by customers on the product’s page. “Have to say that this is truly a beautiful product, but I had to send it back because there aren’t any doggone instructions. I don’t even know how to turn the flippin thing on,” FredDringus wrote, giving Medium Leather Wrapped Stone a meager three stars. “It’s a little pricey,” PatIsInnocent wrote to describe his transcendent purchase, “but the sales lady told me the rock was made by hand. That’s got to be difficult.”
