1844 Elementary Spelling Book by Noah Webster with Lots of Good Words! wooden folk art cat I'd guess this small tin

I'd guess this small tin wall box was meant to hold matches

with light scratches and scuffs all over and one straight vertical hairline crack in one piece of inlay (as pictured)

His work is included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts & Design

Plus it weighs about two pounds--such that one could use it as a paperweight and also for arm exercises

1844 Elementary Spelling Book by Noah Webster with Lots of Good Words! wooden folk art cat I'd guess this small tinClearly I've got words and language on my brain this week plus I just made a visit to my favorite antiquarian book seller in Maine so here's this lovely, early speller published by Sanborn & Carter, Portland, Maine in 1844. Lovely hand colored title page, then page after page of good (and pretty) words getting progressively longer and more sophisticated as one goes along. Another one to inspire images as new lines of thinking as one sees sequences