Uncommon Old Sleeve Stretcher with Graceful Lines and Warm Patina santa watercolor I love the awkward pile

I love the awkward pile up of flowers in their vase

There is not much out there about Blouch except a few sales of work at auction (Garth's

with a path between them leading through a mountainous landscape

which evolved from the German word "putzen" meaning to clean or to decorate—as beginning in the late 19th c

long beard

Uncommon Old Sleeve Stretcher with Graceful Lines and Warm Patina santa watercolor I love the awkward pileThis feels to me akin to Shaker sweater stretchers and the mitten stretchers I listed last week too; this one with a strong tension to the hinged metal strips held between gracefully arching and tapering pieces of pine, which would be inserted inside a sleeve and then released to pull it taut. And it's one that feels like a graceful three dimensional line drawing to me, and with a terrific warm, dry wood patina to the pine, too. 22 1 2" l x 10" w