Rare Antique Oval Shaped Slate with Carved Walnut Frame fire starter I believe for wearing it

I believe for wearing it on a chatelaine

lushly executed in a super elegant and interesting palette

I have found one record of a Marshall J

but there are good flowers and leaves and boats and butterflies and suns and moons and much more

with a loose suggestion of wood grain

Rare Antique Oval Shaped Slate with Carved Walnut Frame fire starter I believe for wearing itI've bought and sold and otherwise admired a lot of antique slates, but never have I come across one with a rounded corner frame like this one, hand carved of walnut, I believe, in two parts joined by interlocking wooden pins. Since finding this one I've hunted around online and found just a couple of images of other 19th c round ish slates, but none with frames joined in quite this way. To my eye it's extraordinary beautiful, and all the better for