Flowers and Strawberries in Basket, Early Naive Ink and Watercolor on Wove sweet drawing but certainly making a statement

but certainly making a statement anywhere

it has much more the feel and presence of a plaster sculpture that a craft project

The figure is carved of wood with what looks to me like a combination of graphite for the face and either crayon or paint for the orange and black details

On the underside of the cup is a patent date of Feb 23

The acid yellow adhered die-cut lettering ranges from glowing to pale

Flowers and Strawberries in Basket, Early Naive Ink and Watercolor on Wove sweet drawing but certainly making a statementYou know I'm a sucker for a naive floral watercolor, and this I believe is quite an early one, 1st half 19th c.(and I think closer to 1800 than 1850), with a wonderful looseness and sense of whimsy to it indeed, it looks almost as if the basket is about to tip over with the weight of all those flowers! Fabulous woven basket, fabulous flurry of green, with roses and bluebells and pansies and strawberries and who knows what all spilling out. I