Boxers in the Ring with Arms Swinging, Mid 20th Century Carved Folk Art Construction antique wooden snuff box with the paper cuts traditionally

with the paper cuts traditionally used as decorations for windows

Obviously with the hole in one side it cannot be used as a cup for liquid--but would be perfect for throwing dice

with pulled pink curtain at left

(I especially love the rectangular stretch of darning straight down the center of Elizabeth's name plate and beyond--perhaps with a few of those letters re-embroidered too

with the old dry wood surface on the underside giving the best sense of the piece's age

Boxers in the Ring with Arms Swinging, Mid 20th Century Carved Folk Art Construction antique wooden snuff box with the paper cuts traditionallyI've got an obsession with representations of boxers, boxing matches, boxing rings a brutal sport, but also I think a beautiful one, as elemental and also existential as it gets. I've had a few carved push button boxing toys over the years, but this the first full blown folk art construction of a pair going at it inside a ring. One arm of each of the boxers will move manually, and both arms of the man in silver shirt. Platform, posts, and figures