Rare c. 1880s Palmer Cox Brownies Matching Game Cards (Partial Set) toy top (Based on manner

(Based on manner

Nails for eyes over tin disks

as point of reference

But what makes this one particularly intriguing is that pasted to the back of the painting and written in pencil in a childlike hand

Rare c. 1880s Palmer Cox Brownies Matching Game Cards (Partial Set) toy top (Based on mannerThese seem to be quite the rare cards; I have only found one reference to them out there, from a baseball card afficionado relative to the two baseball player depictions included! Certainly there is a fair amount of material out there featuring the Brownies imaginary sprites invented by Canadian author and illustrator Palmer Cox, apparently based on Celtic mythology and highland Scottish tales told to Cox by his grandmother but these I believe are