Evocative 1877 Plaster Portrait Mold of Bearded Gentleman barrel shaped box I've been keeping an eye

I've been keeping an eye out for old folding rulers when I'm out and about

Quite a charming and tender thing I think

and here I think the wintery trees and traces of her skates on the ice are all the better felt in the negative

so of course I scooped it up immediately

Evocative 1877 Plaster Portrait Mold of Bearded Gentleman barrel shaped box I've been keeping an eyeI think I'd be way less interested in the cast plaster portraits created from this than I am in the mold itself, which I find super evocative and a bit haunting too, with all of its patina now making it feel a bit like a momento mori. I don't know who this man was, but there is a date of 1877 carved into the back. Around the perimeter is an old iron wire holding it together one assumes added at the time it cracked along his shoulder with a beautiful