Fancy 19th Century Carved Double Ball in Cage Whimsy (Presumed Weaving Shuttle) in Original Polychrome #2 wooden nutcracker wings and tail feathers

wings and tail feathers

but I do think they're lovely and pretty cool too

and could be considered as a set of nine plus a set of 25

Marvelous folky face

12" x 4 1/2" x 1 7/8"

Fancy 19th Century Carved Double Ball in Cage Whimsy (Presumed Weaving Shuttle) in Original Polychrome #2 wooden nutcracker wings and tail feathersGoogle image searches can be useful, even if much of the time what they turn up is irrelevant or just wrong! In this case I have found a couple of carvings similar to this one (nobs at the end, pinched center, "balls in cages" at either side" described as 19th century weaving shuttles, which makes very good sense the perfect shape and size to wrap thread yarn around and run across a loom. (Sewing and weaving tools are really among the richest terrains