Ships, Folk Art, and Whimsey in Bottles

This is a thread winder built in a round flask-like blown bottle. The winder is made with 4 wooden pieces forming the corners and inside are 2 sets of "X" cross wooden pieces serving as stretchers. There are 5 colors of thread: black, white, orange, yellow, and cream. Each thread is wrapped around the winder many times making a band of color approximately 1/2" thick. Going through the center of the winder is a shaft of wood that goes through both stretchers and comes out the bottom as a small dowel. On the top there is a crosspiece that goes through the shaft and there are 2 small pegs coming out of one side of the crosspiece; one on each side of the wooden shaft. On the end of each side of the crosspiece a thread with a multi-colored tassel with a natural colored bead on top goes through holes and suspends the top in the bottle. Attached to the bottom of each corner leg is a red tassel with a white bead on top of a black thread that is tied to the leg. This is from the the Meiji Era (1868 - 1912)