Mid 19th c. Cut Paper Birds and Elephants by J. McNally with Scissors in Toes at Barnum's Museum vintage cocktails He wore a pig tail

He wore a pig tail as many Chinese did then

though perhaps it is a little older than that

but these give it a nice patina of age and use and the horsehair bristles are in very good shape (and nice and soft on one's neck

Such s sweet little mouse

Mid 19th c. Cut Paper Birds and Elephants by J. McNally with Scissors in Toes at Barnum's Museum vintage cocktails He wore a pig tailThis one is subtle (the first photo shows it lit from behind) but I think quite special, significantly for the story of it handwritten in pencil at bottom left, surely noted not long after its making. It notes that the paper cut, of birds and elephants, was done at Barnum's Museum (operated by P. T Barnum and located in Lower Manhattan at the corner of Broadway, Park Row and Ann Street, from 1841 to 1865; it was after the museum burned down that