Puzzling Old Interlocking Whimsy Carving bamboo There is just a little

There is just a little loss to the surface of a couple of strips on the back side

people would wrap the center in black cloth tape like this

a long and tall ball in cage feeling as much a modernist sculpture as a whimsy

Another Brimfield favorite---which the person who sold it to me had to take a picture of before parting with

with a spring that enables its beak (red on the inside

Puzzling Old Interlocking Whimsy Carving bamboo There is just a littleI've been living with this one awhile so as to enjoy it and puzzle over it! before parting with it. My pondering was on whether it is actually composed of two tightly interlocking pieces of wood or was just incised on the surface to give that illusion but I've now learned that indeed this was a carpenter's trick, and so this a carpenter's whimsy. I love it as a very satisfying physical object (there is absolutely no wiggle between those two pieces;