Mid 19th c. Cut Paper Birds and Elephants by J. McNally with Scissors in Toes at Barnum's Museum German dental model and curtain artfully drawn behind

and curtain artfully drawn behind him

New York: George Braziller

I love love love this little thing-- a tiny treen apple with a 36+ inch cloth measuring tape inside

it could be kept on the desk just to be picked up now and then as it feels great to hold

looking perfectly bruised and on the verge of beginning to rot

Mid 19th c. Cut Paper Birds and Elephants by J. McNally with Scissors in Toes at Barnum's Museum German dental model and curtain artfully drawn behindThis one is subtle (the first photo shows it lit from behind) but I think quite special, significantly for the story of it handwritten in pencil at bottom left, surely noted not long after its making. It notes that the paper cut, of birds and elephants, was done at Barnum's Museum (operated by P. T Barnum and located in Lower Manhattan at the corner of Broadway, Park Row and Ann Street, from 1841 to 1865; it was after the museum burned down that