Tiny Acrobats, Very Wonderful Earlyish 19th Century Ink Drawing in Tramp Frame spittoon when hard-shelled electric miner's cap

when hard-shelled electric miner's cap lamps began to replace canvas caps with brackets to which oil lamps attached

I believe specifically made as a stand for the circus elephant

who I have to hope was not actually driving the plane

quite a distance in both cases

18" tall X 9 1/2'" across at widest

Tiny Acrobats, Very Wonderful Earlyish 19th Century Ink Drawing in Tramp Frame spittoon when hard-shelled electric miner's capLove at first sight with this little drawing I swear I'll never get over the marvelous whimsy and immediacy of naive drawings made some 150 years ago, and to my sensibilities they feel all the more so when tiny, like secret windows into interior worlds long ago, whose survival defied all the odds. Two little girls here being held aloft by what looks to me like two women wearing pants, each little girl holding flowers, and with a bird in cage between