I'm always admiring old hetchel, which were used to comb flax in preparation of spinning it into thread, but this small scale one is the first I've really felt compelled to purchase, as it seems to me just about the most primitive, distilled iteration of the tool I've seen, and pure sculpture at the same time. Just two rows of old iron teeth here, beautifully rusted and bent here and there, a handful of them a little loose, such that they can be swayed to one direction or the other, and some empty holes in the wood too where some have been lost. Then fat old iron nails along the side of the near-black wood. And on the underside, what looks to be an acquisition number, suggesting perhaps this was once part of a museum or historic house collection.
11 1/2” x 2 1/4” x 2 3/4” tall. Much aged as evident, which is much of what I love about it, with a handful of loose teeth as noted and shown in photos.
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