Dark and Moody Early Tintype of Two China Dolls and their Bed antique shaker horsehair brush fashioned of old crate wood

fashioned of old crate wood showing a stenciled tea label on the underside of the top lid

but a 1893 charcoal drawing surely rolled up and carried around many a time seems as if it should should show some wear

but I think this plain one

3 1/4" x 4 1/4"

Dark and Moody Early Tintype of Two China Dolls and their Bed antique shaker horsehair brush fashioned of old crate woodDoesn't get much moodier than this one, feeling almost like a post mortem of these two dolls! Early photographs of girls with their dolls are not too hard to come by, but much rarer to find portraits of dolls alone, and here a pair, both with painted porcelain heads and porcelain arms, but slightly different from one another (I'd call the one at left the older sister!) And with what looks like a doll bed behind them, which they are leaning up against.