Lush Victorian Sea Moss Composition with Cut Paper Urn, Mid 19th Century, Period Oak Frame two men and a pronounced vertical warp

and a pronounced vertical warp visible on the exterior

and so feels to me more like a consolation trophy than the winning one

a pottery founded shortly after the state of Israel was formed post WWII in 1949

Both with inset steel blades

I just love everything about this portrait (those huge blue eyes

Lush Victorian Sea Moss Composition with Cut Paper Urn, Mid 19th Century, Period Oak Frame two men and a pronounced vertical warpOccasionally I'll see a Victorian dried flower composition with a cut paper element, but I don't believe I've ever seen a sea moss picture like this before, with that black paper urn evoking a theorem painting stencil as well as a cut paper silhouette portrait, and I think locating it c. 1850s or so. I love sea moss pressings of all sorts (including for the fact that sea moss gathering represented an acceptable way for young women to get out in nature