Diminutive Old Hand-Carved Green-Gray Stone Miniature Folk Art Book handwritten lettering and all sorts of impasto

and all sorts of impasto for the trees and bushes

as if the figure were far away from mountainous landscape in the distance

scissors holder 3 1/4" long

3 1/2” x 2 3/8

so increasingly it is unusual ones that draw me

Diminutive Old Hand-Carved Green-Gray Stone Miniature Folk Art Book handwritten lettering and all sorts of impastoThere are certainly much larger and fancier old marble stone carved books out there, but I like the small scale and humbleness of this one, which would be perfect as the topper of a graduated stack. Carved of a variegated stone, soapstone I believe, with incised details around the perimeters of the front and back "covers" and across the spine, with crosses at the corners and recessed "pages". Found in Lancaster County PA, late 19th early 20th century