Carved, Painted Old Folk Art Whimsy with Glass Marble Ball (ex. Matt King collection) lap desk so relaxed

so relaxed

into which all of the components neatly fit

to which the legs and tail have each been attached by nails (with the nail attached to the tail left loose enough to allow the tail to move from side to side

with empty pages scattered throughout

Carved, Painted Old Folk Art Whimsy with Glass Marble Ball (ex. Matt King collection) lap desk so relaxedI watched this one recently come and go in at auction as part of the late dealer collector Matt King's estate, one in a lot of several objects. (With most everything fetching prices way beyond me, I gave up.). But then this little whimsy showed up elsewhere (I guess the buyer bought the lot for something else in it) so I grabbed it. How that marble got inside is a bit less of a mystery than I thought (one short end shows a diagonal cut, so the wood