Living at a time when concern with truth seems ever-diminishing, the appeal, to me at least, of things like honestly weathered old wood grows in inverse proportion! And since I found this old thing, a primitive hanging/drying rack I presume, at a old school antique shop in the Mohawk Valley in Upstate NY, its humble beauty and lyricism have struck me anew every time I look at it and made it one of my favorite recent finds. (With a kinship in my mind to a gorgeous antique miniature Inuit pine sled I bought and sold not long ago.)
Looks to me like the two long beams, with large holes at opposite ends, were repurposed from something else, and then the top slat at one end angled to fit into the hole--at first I thought as a solution to having come un-nailed from its horizontal position, but it looks instead to have been salvaged from something else (there are nails on the back side of it), carved to fit that hole, and nailed in place--perhaps to stabilize and also as means of hanging it from that corner? Whatever the case, the formal effect is just right in combination with the rest of the slats, each of a slightly different width and length than the next. I found this hanging on the wall, like a sculpture and a line drawing, which is just what I would do with it.
22 3/8" x 13 1/8" x 2 1/4". Sound and stable, with the dry wood beautifully weathered. One slat missing, as evident.
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