Beautiful Old Hand-carved Chalk Line Winder grand tour alabaster so these certainly date to

so these certainly date to the 1880s or so

which to my eye at least turns the two vertical rows of white stitching in between the flowers into trails of smoke emitting from its smoke stack

The box appears to have been made with wood salvaged from cigar boxes or wooden crates

I'm selling these as a pair

giving a little variety to the rattling

Beautiful Old Hand-carved Chalk Line Winder grand tour alabaster so these certainly date toI've bought and sold a few old chalk line winders, and this is an especially lovely old hand carved one, with cross piece at the top that reminds me of a bottle whimsy stopper. I just can't resist the blue of the string, colored from use with blue chalk. Useful still for pulling straight lines, but really just a beautiful object. 8 3 4" x 1 1 2" diameter. Winder in very good condition, turns smoothly. String beautifully variegated blue.