Vintage Holgate Primary Color Nesting Cubes with Graduated Rattles tabletop wooden house\ Walnut is 1 1/4" across

Walnut is 1 1/4" across

I see a green snake with bared teeth and fantastically long tongue

I'm not quite totally sure the purpose of this one

earlyish 20th century I believe

Vintage Holgate Primary Color Nesting Cubes with Graduated Rattles tabletop wooden house\ Walnut is 1 1/4" acrossOld Holgate nesting stacking boxes are among the things I stalk, though I've only ever scored one set, and I think whoever out there has some is never letting them go. There are a few different sizes and varieties that were made, all highly covetable, but I have never seen another set like this: inside the walls of each of the boxes are what I'd guess are tiny metal balls, which make a rattle, with the pitch graduated from highest for the smallest