Strange Inner Glow: Evocatively Degraded Ninth Plate Ruby Ambrotype of Baby miniature shoe with laces There are at least four

There are at least four different colors of stain on the various wooden pieces

with a small chip to the upper right corner of the frame

and pretty great wonkily painted face

dating to the 1940s I am pretty certain

Strange Inner Glow: Evocatively Degraded Ninth Plate Ruby Ambrotype of Baby miniature shoe with laces There are at least fourSuch a strange one! This is an foil wrapped, uncased 19th c. ruby ambrotype which, over time, has been transformed in what I find a quite evocative and rather otherworldly way, as if revealing this child's inner light (or its being consumed from within by a pear shaped ectoplasmic blob!) I especially love how the hand at left seems to grip and press into the side of the glowing form. There is no backing aside from a taped perimeter and the foil wrap,