1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies good shepherd retablo 8 1/4" t including solid

8 1/4" t including solid wooden base

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

This is lovely vintage slide top box with dovetailed corners and a reddish stain

I couldn't resist them

1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies good shepherd retablo 8 1/4" t including solidI 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,