19th Century Tole Snuff Box/Vesta Shoe, Hand Engraved with Best Red Soles! persistent faces there seems something powerfully true

there seems something powerfully true and tender about the convergence of naivete and brutality in drawings like these

I have to think the business at hand here was one of transport--and would guess most likely this was meeting hall for the Transit Workers Union

I would be pretty confident in guessing that the Raymond Stahl who painted it grew each of these vegetables himself

and one little scrap on the interior revealing "Lowell

Born at Irvington-on-Hudson

19th Century Tole Snuff Box/Vesta Shoe, Hand Engraved with Best Red Soles! persistent faces there seems something powerfully true(First photo is a composite, showing two views.) The best tole (painted tin) snuff box (or perhaps vesta) shoe I have ever seen, truly. I was sold on it from the top view, between the cream paint and wonderful hand engraved decoration, but then I saw the bright red painted underside and that was it. The Louboutin of shoe shaped boxes (but much more practical!) Also makes me think of Dorothy in her ruby red slippers. Fabulous, and a perfect valentine,