Hail Stones from Great Storm of 1870, Scarce Knowlton Brothers Stereoview tabletop figurine with ebonized wood backs

with ebonized wood backs

The top is threaded

This one does not bear a patent mark that I can see and I think may not be quite that old

What first drew me to the painting is that wonderful passage of colorful strips at center

Hail Stones from Great Storm of 1870, Scarce Knowlton Brothers Stereoview tabletop figurine with ebonized wood backsOne of two stereoviews today, both among my very favorites I've had. At first glance I took these for a cluster of button mushrooms, but a closer look, and the printed list on the reverse of the card, reveals these as a collection of hail stones from "the Great Storm of 1870." The compounding of the strange phenomenon that is hail with the fact of these particular hail stones having been captured as documents of a specific "Great Storm" before melting