Charming and Naively Sophisticated Early-Mid 19th Century Fantasy Architecture Watercolor in Period Frame antique paints with the rust creeping up

with the rust creeping up toward those trusty and official looking capital white letters

The leather strap that allows the vise to open widely or pull closed is still in good shape

suggesting perhaps this was once part of a museum or historic house collection

Some smearing to the old paint

Kinsey's Toy Building Blocks in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum

Charming and Naively Sophisticated Early-Mid 19th Century Fantasy Architecture Watercolor in Period Frame antique paints with the rust creeping upA little glare in the photos here and the colors are richer in hand. This is a very lovely earlyish 19th century naive watercolor, and exactly the kind of small painting one wants to live with I think a dreamy sort of landscape centered on a piece (or series of pieces of) what I take for fantasy architecture s. (And really, what a curious 18th 19th century folk art phenomenon "fantasy" architecture paintings were often executed as sandpaper drawings,