Pineapple butter mold

This old unfinished wood butter mold stands 3-1/4" high and has a base diameter of 2". The stamp diameter is 1-3/4" and has a pattern of pineapple and leaves. The wood is really old and starting to split at the top of the mold and on the stamp. The mold has an indentation that looks like it might have been a knife slip when the piece was carved. (Click on picture for more images.) Tell a friend.

Price: $70.00 + s/h and insurance

  only 1 available

Primitive folk art maiden

This is a 7-1/2" tall hand-carved walnut sculpture of a beautiful young maiden seated on what might be a rough hewn log, the base of which is 2-1/2" x 5". The piece was carved in 1953 by a friend of Ol’ Swaphos’ family by the name of George Squires, a lifelong woodworker and sculptor. We have made no attempt to oil or wax the wood, preserving the maiden’s attractive rustic folk art appearance. She’s really quite lovely. (Click on picture for more images.) Tell a friend.

Price: $150.00 + s/h and insurance

  only 1 available

Teak leaf dish

This is a wooden dish, possibly teakwood, in the shape of three stemmed leaves forming the three compartments. The graining is quite lovely. Dimensions are 11" x 7" x 1-1/2" high. There’s a small metal loop on the underside of the stem, presumably for threading through a cord if you wish to hang the dish on a wall. There is faint black writing on the bottom that is only partially readable. I can make out “Woodcraft” and what appears to be “Made in Hawaii”, but the rest is a mystery to me. No splits or cracks, but usage scuffs on the interior sides of the compartments, as well as the bottom. (Click on picture for more images.) Tell a friend.

Price: $25.00 + s/h and insurance

  only 1 available

Pair of long teak bowls

This is a pair of 19-1/2" x 3-5/8" x 1-1/2" high wooden bowls that may be teakwood. They are very light in weight for such large pieces. The graining is quite lovely, and each one looks like it was carved out of a single piece of wood. No cracks or splits, but minor use scuffing at the tops and on the exterior side of one. I can’t imagine what their practical use might be, but they’re certainly decorative! (Click on picture for more images.) Tell a friend.

Price: $40.00 + s/h and insurance

  only 1 pair available

Hand-crafted Oriental treasure box

Look at this little treasure and your mind begins to drift back into another time and another world. Perhaps you are on the Yangtze River, the longest in China, standing invisibly aboard a small junk moored with the other houseboats along the bank. The adjoining space is empty and an ancient grandfather busies himself to prepare a special surprise before his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson return from their grueling daily river fishing excursion and maneuver their working houseboat next to his for the night.

His golden tan face is a roadmap of character lines etched during the half century or more when he supported his family, as his father and grandfather before him, fishing the ancient river. Now his son and daughter-in-law teach his grandson to follow the river and its yield of a meager living. His white mustache and goatee glisten in the morning sun and he presents the countenance of ancient wisdom so revered in the Orient.

He is surrounded by scraps of bamboo and small pieces of wood he has salvaged from discarded crates. You watch as he diligently cuts pieces of patterned tin and textured cloth into strips. He whittles and splits and fashions the pieces into his surprise. You watch him gently pound tiny brass nails just so, then climax his creation by the addition of tiny brass hinges and finally a unique bronze-finished locking mechanism he has kept for years. He looks up as the sun is setting to see his family wearily polling their junk down the river toward their nightly repose. As he excitedly jumps up with his handicraft completed, your mind snaps back and you never learn for whom his surprise was created.

Likewise we do not know the journey taken by his surprise prior to being spotted as part of an estate sale in the United States by Ol’ Swaphos, who said, upon placing it into the inventory of the Santa Fe Trading Post™, “The future history and treasures to be held by this magical wooden box are yet to be written.”

This uniquely shaped hand-crafted wooden box from the Orient is not only beautiful, but has many unusual features. The front has three panels, a black metal strip with gilded Oriental characters flanked by two strips of what appears to be highly textured black material with a gold honeycomb-like design. The curved lid is just the opposite 3-panel design, with the honeycomb material strip being flanked by two of the metal strips. Bent wooden strips, held in place by tiny brass nails, surround all of the panels, accentuate all four side edges of the box, and wrap around the top of the box and the bottom of the lid that opens via a gracefully shaped brass prong mechanism. Two brass hinges on the back complete the hardware. Box stands 4-1/4" high and measures 4-3/4" x 4-3/4". Excellent condition with no damage whatsoever. The back retains most of its original paper label where you can make out a faded red AAA with a diamond underneath containing additional letters, both surrounded by black Oriental characters in a double circle. (Could it have been the label of a British Hong Kong trading company of old that was affixed to one of the grandfather’s salvaged crate scraps?) On the bottom is the remnant of another label that I doubt was original. This lovely old box is the perfect accent piece for a coffee table or end table, but would be equally at home in the boudoir for use as a distinctive jewelry box. (Click on picture for more images.) Tell a friend.

Price: $30.00 + s/h and insurance

  only 1 available