In Memory of My 19th Birthday, 1864, Ink Drawing in Period Frame antique handmade sign with a face only a

with a face only a mother could love

but I love the scene and mood it captures as a whole--that satisfying moment of pause on a long walk

in any event

and I might think more toward the early side

Initialed in the bottom right corner what looks like C

In Memory of My 19th Birthday, 1864, Ink Drawing in Period Frame antique handmade sign with a face only aA perfect 19th birthday present if I ever saw one though also for anyone who can remember being nineteen, in my case very distantly! One certainly wonders what all happened that year in the life of the Frank Ellis who drew this in 1864 during the Civil War, with the arching stalks and capillary like branches of what I take for boughs of a fruit tree having a bit of the mournful quality of a weeping willow. But, yet, a pot of blooming flowers right at