French Soldiers and Sailors Painted Wooden Skittle Set bird in cage and general signs of wear

and general signs of wear consistent with age

There are some very fancy little antique shoe-shaped snuff boxes out there with all sorts of inlays and flourishes

and there is one broken rung in the ladder

and the sweet story of a Jacques and Marie escaping to the the beach on a hot July day in Paris

French Soldiers and Sailors Painted Wooden Skittle Set bird in cage and general signs of wearI have a weakness for old figurative skittles or nine pins, and hard to beat a set of nine that includes both soldiers AND sailors! I'm not entirely sure if they were a combined set to begin with or came together at some later point, but I am pretty certain they are French, and 1940s at the latest. The outfits and colors are great, and I especially love the facial expressions, with eyes all looking in one direction, as if toward a rolling ball coming