Young Woman in Blue, Antique Full Plate Folk Art Painted Tintype Chinese seal and general soiling

and general soiling

There's a bit of damage/irregularity to the wire mesh at the tip of the nose

I do believe most likely 18th c

where it was clearly opened and shut many many times--think of all the fish caught with the "leurre" inside

with the leather sewn to either edge

Young Woman in Blue, Antique Full Plate Folk Art Painted Tintype Chinese seal and general soilingI've really fallen in love with antique hand painted full plate tintype portraits, and this one a bit bolder and more striking in person has a wonderful intensity and surrealness about it, with the matte gray painting around this young woman amplifying the elongated shape of her head and hair, making her look almost as if in the process of transforming into a different sort of creature (I keep thinking of a gazelle!) With wonderfully delicate dots of