I really love this one, found yesterday in New Hampshire on the border of Vermont--the singular creation of a farmer I'm sure, and which certainly appears to have led a long and full life plucking apples from trees, or at least that is what I believe it was devised to do! The "basket" is formed of finger-like loops of very heavy wire, with thinner wire woven between them like in a very lyrical sort of way!  These are tethered to the scrap wood handle with wire wound round and round in to my eye a really beautiful way, and then best of all a mechanical, spring tension catching/gripping mechanism, whereby a pull down on the back lever pushes activates the lever on front so as to lock an apple in its grip. There is a loop on the backside of the handle that makes me think the catch might once have been operated with a pull string, and it seems likely the handle might have connected (via the hole near the end) to an extension handle for reaching apples higher up. I love an old make do tool, and this very sculptural one have a great sort of Rube Goldberg feel about it. Wonderful.

17 1/4" l x 5" w x 8 1/4" d (scoop is 3 1/8" deep.) Very good condition, very sturdy and sound and completely usable still, perfectly rusted and aged.