Boxless Box, Elemental and Poetic Antique Carved Out Holder for Straight Edge and Compass square flag and on the back is

and on the back is a flapping fin or tail of sorts with hanging purple silk ribbons

portraying the simultaneous lives of many women--and their different circumstances in the process

With what looks to be some faint handwritten text in a couple of spots too

I'm pretty taken with this antique wooden sign decorated with pyrography

and I'm glad it did

Boxless Box, Elemental and Poetic Antique Carved Out Holder for Straight Edge and Compass square flag and on the back isThere are things the beauty and poetry of which one feels deep in one's gut (or maybe that's the soul?!) this is very much one of those for me. A box that is not a box, custom carved long ago to carry a ruler straight edge on one side and a drafting compass on the other, with carved out recesses into which each would surely have perfectly fit, and then two thinly woven straps stretched all the way around to hold them in place. I am not sure that I