Otherworldly Looking Child with Sword, Toys, and Fantastic Quilted Backdrop antique embroidery I have not removed it

I have not removed it from the frame so am not sure what it was backed with

A couple of minor stains but no holes at all that I can see

though I'd be inclined to put it on a pedestal

as if it has been walking around for the past 150 years or so

It appears that the snake was carved of wood then very painstaking decorated with layers of brown and black cut paper

Otherworldly Looking Child with Sword, Toys, and Fantastic Quilted Backdrop antique embroidery I have not removed itWow. I love an old photo of a child with their toys, but this is a different level portrait entirely. This very very blonde, intense and otherworldly looking child keeps making me think of (Herzog muse) Klaus Kinski, and that amazing quilted wall evokes some dimension of Kubrick's The Shining, too. (Truly, I feel an electric current running through this photo.) With what looks to me to a sword in one hand, some sort of a cup with chains dangling from