1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies good shepherd retablo In wooden crate with jointed

In wooden crate with jointed corners and smart looking American Crayon Company paper label: Freart for Free Expression Work--a phrase which itself feels like a timely mandate

head and two paws raised as if begging you for a treat

whose got quite a power walker's stride

they have a darker stain starting about a third of the way down the handles

1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies good shepherd retablo In wooden crate with jointedI only recently learned about album amicorum (Latin for "book of friends") or liber amicorum, a European manuscript tradition, beginning in the 16ht century, where individualsoften students, scholars, or aristocratscollected signatures, poems, illustrations, and in this case embroideries, from friends, colleagues, and notable figures. A sort of precursor to the Victorian autograph album, but these were comprised of loose pieces, collected over time,