Curse and luck of the Carters

Excellent story on a descendant of Howard Carter, the Egyptologist who discovered King Tut's tomb, in The Wolverhampton (UK) Express & Star. He's an antique collector and auctioneer who says he inherited the "Carter Hunch" — not a curse — which has helped him make exceptional finds of his own.

But, like Howard Carter before him, Africa has always fascinated John Carter. In the heat and dust of Egypt Howard found the "Carter Hunch" drew him like a radar beam into the greatest collection of Egyptian treasures the world had ever seen. The golden mask of the young king, the chariots, golden beds and stunningly beautiful jewellery excited the imagination of the world and changed the face of design. Obviously Hollywood was affected, and rumours of the mythical curse of Tutankhamun lay behind movies like The Mummy's Hand. Curses were in - common sense went out of the window. And John Carter smiles cryptically when he says he found curses of another kind in darkest Africa, Mali to be exact, and the curses were of the mosquito kind. "I've always been an armchair explorer and I devour features on faraway places. I saw a programme on Mali and decided to go. I had collected antiquities and ethnic pieces for some time, so this was to be a buying trip for the Cleobury shop. "I was looking for genuine African masks - the real thing. Mali seemed to be the place to visit. I shall never forget my first African sunrise. Around 7am a huge red orb rose over the tarmac runway at Bamako airport. It was a dazzling sight. The sun's disc was a motif which recurred again and again in the jewellery Howard Carter found in Tutankhamun's tomb. "I found a young French-speaking African guide, Abdoulaye Cisse, who guided me to a local antiquaire. I felt like Howard Carter must have felt all those years ago. It was an Aladdin's cave with antique masks, old ivory, animal skins, weaponry, textiles and old, old furniture lying everywhere covered with dust. "The Bambara masks were stunning. Carved with geometric designs and with traces of original paintwork they were like centuries old art deco before the word was invented. It all left you gawping. "In the evenings an old man came into the hotel garden carrying objects from remote villages he knew. They were just sold on to tourists - if there were any around. Some were fine. You couldn't stop your heart from beating. Any collector would have shelled out his last dollars to own these exquisite bowls and figures. Obviously I did."

A really fun read.