May You Be Happy, 19th C. Paper Lace Love Token Under Glass antique Chinese porcelain and wood box and it performs its function

and it performs its function perfectly

I do believe my favorite find of the week

too--but what makes this especially interesting reading is the far-ranging variety of instructions and recipes included

making me think as much of folk art carved miniature books and bibles than as anything (including for the fact that the slab at his back is carved like a book as well) but I’m really not sure of its origins

Handmade boxes with surprise carved snakes inside seem to have become a thing right around 1900

May You Be Happy, 19th C. Paper Lace Love Token Under Glass antique Chinese porcelain and wood box and it performs its functionA beautiful example of one of these layered paper lace and embossed die cut valentines, or love tokens, and an early one c. 1860s 70s I believe. I would guess this one was actually given on the occasion of a birth or christening, with the hopes of a happy life being imparted to the child, and, it looks to me, a babtism occurring at top center though it also looks a bit like a baby in a bird cage! Detail photos give the best sense of the layering and