Early 19th Century American Homespun Wool Embroidery Candle Mat A.P Hart cabinet card and 20 pages (faces) of

and 20 pages (faces) of pasted clippings

and I really like the fairly rustic approach to what I typically think of as a pretty refined object

there it was

with only a bit of very minor cracking to the interior lacquer and a tiny bit of wear along the edges of the trays where the stack

Early 19th Century American Homespun Wool Embroidery Candle Mat A.P Hart cabinet card and 20 pages (faces) ofA small wonder, rare survivor and one just wants to pet it! It really never ceases to amaze me that things like the have endured. Early 19th century New England I believe, homespun, hand dyed wool on handwoven linen cotton, this would have been made as a candle mat, though with no cloth backing, perhaps it was never finished for use. Some stitches lost to the needlepoint rose and orange ground at center, but quite stable, and the fluffy wool perimeter