1916 Signed Folk Art (Heavy!) Miniature Cast Lead Shoe pyrographed 7 3/4" x 5 3/8"

7 3/4" x 5 3/8"

Someone more knowledgeable than me identified the woods as walnut with maple inlay

There is one tiny brown spot on the paper near the body of the mouse and a visible "frame" on the paper where it lightened with age except where it was previously covered by a mat around the edges

with some small scattered round holes in the surface of the wood

likely French (I didn't care that much

1916 Signed Folk Art (Heavy!) Miniature Cast Lead Shoe pyrographed 7 3/4" x 5 3/8"A very finely crafted miniature shoe, cast of lead, with defined tongue and laces, signed and dated on the sole, MB (or maybe MEB, with an excellent monogram), 1916. I have to think this was made by a metalworker as a whimsy of sorts perhaps as a present for a cobbler, or a businessman! but I'm not entirely sure. Clearly a lot of care was invested, and the incised signature makes me with think there can't have been many. It weighs just about a pound,