Victorian Dried Seaweed Pressing, Isle of Wight #5 metallic Brushes each measure 8" long

Brushes each measure 8" long x 2 1/2" tall

and those beatific little faces

The basket

made with real slate that retains a sense of many many years of school lessons performed across its surface--and I believe this is an especially old one (19th c I think)

final touches of white painted whiskers and ears

Victorian Dried Seaweed Pressing, Isle of Wight #5 metallic Brushes each measure 8" longThis is one of a handful of small seaweed pressings I purchased together, which I think are just exquisitely beautiful! A few of them are signed and dated at bottom, others like this one signed on back (Maggie, in this case), so they represent the work of a few different people, most likely young women, among whom seaweed collecting and pressing was quite the thing during the Victorian era. I love the fact that making these represented not just a