Tiny Carved Wooden Skull Paper Knife greyhound plate and would be pretty great

and would be pretty great in an entryway offering an unforgettable spot to toss one's keys

and that the pointed horizontal ends make it look a little like a weapon

as I wanted  it so much

called "yin-de"

Tiny Carved Wooden Skull Paper Knife greyhound plate and would be pretty greatI find this rather a haunting little carving, I assume meant to serve as a letter opener, and certainly with well more than a hundred years on it I have to think it has opened some letters bearing pretty sad news. The skull itself is tiny, but reads very clearly as a skull, which I've shot with some magnification to get a better sense of its details, which make it look a bit more crude than with viewed by the eye alone. Pretty amazing. 4" long; skull