Early Victorian Etched and Hand-colored Calling Cards - Set of 6 handmade dollhouse stairs with dyed red and green

with dyed red and green grass used for the snake-like decoration

with some aging to the paper

where there is a thin split in the wood but it is still holding fine

this little doll feels decidedly animate

Really a special book

Early Victorian Etched and Hand-colored Calling Cards - Set of 6 handmade dollhouse stairs with dyed red and greenI just found a small lot of these antique calling, or compliments cards, which I am really loving for their finely etched designs, bits of poetry (at turns inspirational and amusing), and for the hand coloring done by their deliverers, more carefully in some cases than it others! These are some of my favorites, including one with this brilliant bit: "it is the mind that makes the charm of travel or quiet It is the mind can ever form it's own