Essex Crystal Style White Cat Stick Pin nine pin kegelsport This wonderful little watercolor painting

This wonderful little watercolor painting feels so familiar

and wonderfully irregular

with pretty scalloped edge on top and bottom

and not one but three brass pins on each--two on the diagonal and a great brass spinner at the center (and these spin very nicely

Plus a hollowed out half walnut shell to pile them into

Essex Crystal Style White Cat Stick Pin nine pin kegelsport This wonderful little watercolor paintingI didn't know these were a thing, but have learned that they very much are, some quite finely done, this one more humble but I think pretty charming still. Essex crystals are also known as 'reverse intaglios, ' made of a cabochon of colourless rock quartz that has been carved on the flat side after which the details of the design are painted, creating a three dimensional 'trompe l'oeil effect'. I believe that is the case here, or at least it was made,