1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies portrait of boy and dog In wooden crate with jointed

In wooden crate with jointed corners and smart looking American Crayon Company paper label: Freart for Free Expression Work--a phrase which itself feels like a timely mandate

and  especially this wonderful black dog at her side with tongue hanging out

sent to a Master Raymond Lorimer from and L

and what I’d guess was once white cloth is now stained pretty much all over

1840s Boxed German Album Amicorum with Many Lovelies portrait of boy and dog In wooden crate with jointedI only recently learned about album amicorum (Latin for "book of friends") or liber amicorum, a European manuscript tradition, beginning in the 16ht century, where individualsoften students, scholars, or aristocratscollected signatures, poems, illustrations, and in this case embroideries, from friends, colleagues, and notable figures. A sort of precursor to the Victorian autograph album, but these were comprised of loose pieces, collected over time,