I love this thing, which I take for an old handmade wooden "fidget" toy of sorts: turn the red painted handle at center, and the five wooden disks rotate, individually and each turning the next so they all circle around the ring like cogs in a wheel. Sometimes they move together well, and sometimes not quite so smoothly, which lends some excitement to the operation--one wants to turn the handle just right. I know this was found in an old barn in Vermont, I presume where it was made, through there is something about it that reminds me a bit of early Japanese treen apples and the horse roulette games they often housed. There is some old red and yellow paint holding on the exterior too, and those five disks with "stem" at center look a bit like a lotus, so it seems not impossible to that this is an old (late 19th/early 20th c.) Japanese toy, though I've not seen another like it. Whatever the case, a great object, and I could sit turning that handle and watching the disks move all day long.
3 7/8" d x 2 1/4" t. Much weathered, all to the good in my opinion. There is a bit of space between the disks such that sometimes a little adjustment is needed to keep them turning well, together, but that is just sort of all part of it. Stable and sound.
You might also like
