Poetic (and Anthropomorphic) 19th Century Wooden Bootjack with Hanging Hole Worn Through etched printers plate or Artemis of Ephesus

or Artemis of Ephesus

much played with but all the better for it I think

Some were signed

quite a thing

There's rarely a closed box of this sort I don't shake to see if there might be something (like kindergarten blocks

Poetic (and Anthropomorphic) 19th Century Wooden Bootjack with Hanging Hole Worn Through etched printers plate or Artemis of EphesusFound in southern Maine this week, I think this is really beautiful, and quite poetic, too. It is a 19th century bootjack, which was used so much that the hanging hole at the narrow end wore all the way through, leaving that open curve. I love the primitive elegance of the resulting form, which also reads like a body, arms (or open mouth, or claw) extending from one end, legs from the other. And turn it over, there's a face! The wood itself shows a