Rare Mid 19th Century "Infant's Alphabet" With Two Handmade Additions to Make Complete slab dish and thought how handy one

and thought how handy one of these would be to keep one of these in one's flea market bag

the delight of a second face on the underside of the lid

Certainly this could be used as a needle/pin keep now

and as much a sculptural object as a functional vessel

Rare Mid 19th Century "Infant's Alphabet" With Two Handmade Additions to Make Complete slab dish and thought how handy oneTo my eye a complete charming thing, and I've never seen another set like this somewhat akin to antique carved bone alphabets, meant to teach spelling, but in this case a paper alphabet with hand colored pictures to boot. The label on the lid of the turned wooden box reads "Infant's Alphabet", with the image of a girl holding doll at center. Inside, 28 rounds cut of heavy paper card, with letters of the alphabet on one side and hand colored engraved