Jerry Blavat’s giant ‘cactus’ sold on Instagram for $350
His ornate dining set and king-size mattress are still up for grabs at East Kensington’s Thunderbird Salvage.
George Mathes didn’t think he’d be leaving a recent furniture removal job with the late Jerry Blavat’s seven-foot-plus succulent.
The owner of the East Kensington thrift store Thunderbird Salvage went to the Old City home of late Philly legend, “The Geator with the Heater,” over a week ago to move a dining table for friend and auction house owner Barry S. Solsberg. Blavat, the beloved Philadelphia DJ, died in January at age 82.
When Mathes arrived at the Society Hill Towers condominium, he noticed a tall, slightly distressed euphorbia in the dining room near the windows overlooking Old City.
Hearing it would be discarded, Mathes decided to save the prickly African milk tree plant and take it back to Thunderbird.
“I was like, ‘No, I want to save the cactus’ — it was Jerry’s cactus and I’m sure it meant something to him,” he said. “I just felt like it’s a piece of nature and it was Jerry’s, and we need to save that.” Blavat’s daughter, eager to clean out the unit, gave it to him for free.
On Sunday, the store listed the plant for $500 on Instagram, hoping to find “anyone who loves Cacti and appreciates the wonderful human being that Jerry Blavat was.” (Plant-loving commenters were quick to point out that the item in question was a succulent, not a cactus.) Within about 15 hours, a buyer slid into the store’s DMs and offered $350.
Sold — just another day of unusual offerings on Thunderbird’s Instagram account.
“People don’t seem to be too surprised about what we get on the posts, because we are just so strange,” Mathes said. “Everything we do every day and what we get [in the store] is so unusual that it’s kind of normal now.”
While the euphorbia has a new home, Mathes is still looking for someone to take Blavat’s dining table set with a lacquered and mirrored wood base, a three-piece lacquered wood top with three glass slabs, and eight Italian dining chairs by Pietro Constantini. (Though Mathes was initially hired by Slosberg, the auctioneer, to move the pieces, Slosberg decided not to pursue them and will instead take a portion of any sales Mathes makes from the items.)
A console table with lacquered wood base, three drawers, and two cabinets is also a part of the dining set, which is priced at $5,000 or best offer. Both items were made in France, according to a sticker with “mobilier fabrique en France” on the items.
All pieces break down for easy moving. The dining table is 107 inches (with leaf) by 30 inches by 44 inches (without the hidden compartment in the center), and chairs are 42 inches tall. The console table is 103 inches by 21 inches by 31 inches.
That’s not all Mathes and his crew picked up. You can buy Blavat’s king-size mattress and inversion therapy table for $150 each at Thunderbird too. Delivery is $75 for a single item — price goes up for deliveries outside the city, additional items, and other logistics.
Roaming the apartment was a cool experience for Mathes, who got a glimpse of the late singer’s “unbelievable” bathrooms with mirrored walls and ceiling, cool lights, and hot tubs.
“I was a fan [of Blavat],” he said. “But because it’s not my generation, I didn’t know much about him so I appreciated him because of who he was.”
But what’s more exciting for Mathes is adding another gem to his expansive collection of thrifted finds.
“So few businesses go out and seek this stuff and are willing to do all the work-slash-labor to go out there and make things happen like this,” he said. “[Acquiring a Blavat plant] happens when you want to go out and when you put this out into the universe — it’s just gonna come back at you.”