You know I love old brass stencils as objects and as found language, and what an unusual--and unusually long!--one this KNITTING MACHINERY stencil is. C.1900 I believe, when commercial knitting--made by knitting machines--would have primarily been used for knitting underwear, socks and hosiery. (This "machine knitting" vastly expanded as the public taste for knitted fashion exploded in late 1910s/early 1920s.) So an interesting piece of textile history here. And then the patina--making it appear that the stencil was used more for labeling crates of MACHINERY in general than ones specifically for knitting, the effect of which I love, creating something of an opposition between  craft/hand labor and automation/industrialization. (Knitting remaining golden, and machinery a sooty black!)  Interesting and evocative in all sorts of ways and contexts I think.

29" x 4". Of a scale that makes it feel much more of a sign than a stencil. Very good antique condition, general wear and black ink on the surface of the machinery half as shown, all very much to the good I think.