Beautiful Old Black Cloth Tape Ball bobbin lace bird Nielson in 1919 for biology

Nielson in 1919 for biology and hygiene class

making me think maybe a snuff box instead

and producing bright

sturdy and solid

The tradition of carved wooden "Love spoons" apparently dates to mid 1600’s

Beautiful Old Black Cloth Tape Ball bobbin lace bird Nielson in 1919 for biologyI had one other ball like this several years ago, and learned that sometimes when the leather skin came off a baseball softball, people would wrap the center in black cloth tape like this. To me it's like a more succinct and visceral version of a rag ball, wounded and wound, looking almost as if coated in tar. A beautiful and evocative thing. Approx 3" in diameter and in good, tightly wrapped condition.