Concealing and Revealing, 19th C. Hand-painted Beauty on Papier Mache Cigar Case (No Lid) vintage folk art decoy of graduated sizes

of graduated sizes

and you can position one or both arms to stay overhead

I personally love that there is some wear to the paint on their heads

with the representation of these cans being perfectly aligned with John's artistic and conceptual interests

Concealing and Revealing, 19th C. Hand-painted Beauty on Papier Mache Cigar Case (No Lid) vintage folk art decoy of graduated sizesThis beauty was clearly painted for the delectation of a male, on the face of a lacquered papier mache box (with hinged lid that is gone) that would have served as a cigar case. This particular form of case seems to have been popularized by Stobwasser Fabrik Brunsieg of Germany, which stamped the insides of the covers so we can't know for sure on this one, but it is clearly of that type and dates to the mid 19th century. I love the openness of this