Antique Sailor Made Hardwood Fid with Carved Fist French cafe with the fat iron nails

with the fat iron nails at his joints and rust all over attesting to it

with the design applied to the white enamel by transfer printing--a process by which an impression from an engraved metal plate brushed with enamel colours is transferred to paper and then to the surface to be decorated

My photos are not very good - pages are general brighter

which I will leave to someone else

Antique Sailor Made Hardwood Fid with Carved Fist French cafe with the fat iron nailsThis is a wonderful antique folk art sailor's fid carved of hardwood. I purchased it from a dealer specializing in antique nautical items, who I believed had just brought it in, and as I carried it to the front of the (excellent) antique co op where I found it, one person after the next enthusiastically admired it. Fids, or marlinspikes, vary in size but are always conical and tapering in form; they were essential tools used by sailors for a variety