Curious Old Brass Wood Splitting Man Folk Art Match Holder (?) letter knife This couple seem very empathetic

This couple seem very empathetic indeed

with terrific midnight blue hand-painted strips and circles against bright white body

but as I don't

what an amazing set they would have made

trained under Academic history painters Fernand Cormon and Jean Paul Laurens and exhibited at the salon of French artists

Curious Old Brass Wood Splitting Man Folk Art Match Holder (?) letter knife This couple seem very empatheticIt was suggested to me when I purchased this that it was a piece of trench art, and I think that it likely, with the canister made from a shell casing and the little chopping man cut from from some scrap. In any case, it's certainly it's own special folk art thing, and I really love this smiling but very focused looking fellow very intent on the task at hand, which looks to me to be splitting a piece of wood. Incised on both sides, and serving as a