Amazing Patchwork Doll with Carved Wooden Head pine box There is a split in

There is a split in the wood at the hip of one leg

though I’ve never really been able to figure out how widely these were made and used outside of those affiliations

made with real slate that retains a sense of many many years of school lessons performed across its surface--and I believe this is an especially old one (19th c I think)

earthy palette

as these are--with the ones I've found dating the 1830s

Amazing Patchwork Doll with Carved Wooden Head pine box There is a split inThis doll completely breaks my heart I find her so beautiful, her body sewn together in a fantastic, layered and tactile patchwork of odds and ends, with the wild woven passage over her chest being my favorite, though the sweetly hand embroidered cloth of her arms and lower body is pretty wonderful too. And then this very sensitively carved wooden head, which to my eye gives her a look of wisdom and self possession, framed by green and black checkered