1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies good shepherd retablo These are the things it

These are the things it makes me think about anyway

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

head and two paws raised as if begging you for a treat

I couldn't resist them

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

1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies good shepherd retablo These are the things itI 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,