BASSETT GRANDE 13 GANG MEMBER WALLET

Private collection
BASSETT GRANDE 13 GANG MEMBER WALLET
Private collection

Collection

  • American Gang Culture

Origin

Los Angeles
California, USA

Year

1990s

Assocation

Formerly owned by a member of Bassett Grande 13, a Hispanic street gang from Los Angeles County

Description

Personalized leather wallet associated with Bassett Grande 13, heavily customized with hand-painted and incised gang imagery. One side features oversized blue-and-white stylized lettering associated with Bassett, while the reverse depicts a silver-colored semi-automatic pistol laid over a green marijuana leaf, with additional initials and markings incorporated into the design.

The wallet’s spine and edges carry further hand-scratched lettering, while the leather shows substantial wear, surface abrasion, fading, and darkening from prolonged everyday use. The combination of gang lettering, firearm imagery, marijuana symbolism, and extensive personalization transforms an ordinary personal item into a distinctly individual artifact of Southern California street-gang culture.

BASSETT GRANDE 13 GANG MEMBER WALLET

1/3

Other items

CALIFORNIA AFRICAN AMERICAN STREET GANGS ANALOG PHOTOGRAPHS (100+) Private collection / American Gang Culture
STREET GANGS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY BOOK Private collection / American Gang Culture
CALIFORNIA CHICANO PRISON PAÑO 004 Private collection / American Gang Culture
CALIFORNIA CHICANO PRISON DRAWING 005 Private collection / American Gang Culture
CALIFORNIA PECKERWOOD STREET GANGS ''FIELD IDENTIFICATION'' ANALOG PHOTOGRAPHS (100+) Private collection / American Gang Culture

550BC is an independent publishing house based in Amsterdam, founded in 2018. Specializing in the complex realities of organized crime and conflict, we explore these subjects through the lens of visual anthropology. Our photo books provide rare, first-person perspectives from within otherwise inaccessible worlds, often created in direct collaboration with those involved. 550BC is also home to a private collection of over 2,000 unique physical items, preserved artifacts from the worlds we document. A selection is presented in our online archive.

| Site by Ilya S.
InstagramE-Mail