Magical Hand-colored Sixth Plate Ruby Ambrotype of PA Folk Art Identified Portrait Painting cast graphite hand great as a paperweight or

great as a paperweight or just sitting around

with the pattern of the way the splint has weathered amplifying the woven construction of the basket in just the right way

it has since been taped in a few places on the reverse side to hold it together

as it was done entirely out of one piece of wood--and what a beautiful piece of wood it is (maple I believe)

and to that little whiskered mole or shrew

Magical Hand-colored Sixth Plate Ruby Ambrotype of PA Folk Art Identified Portrait Painting cast graphite hand great as a paperweight orCompletely wonderful and really quite magical feeling, this is a mid 19th c. hand colored ruby ambrotype of a portrait painting, the subject of which a handwritten note on the inside of the case identifies as a young Sarah Ann Sheibley, painted by her school teacher at the Sheaffer School: a Samuel Weidler Jr. A bit of searching turns up a several Sarah A. Sheibleys of Pennsylvania, and a few Weidlers who were teachers, and I believe the Sheaffer