Unusual 1890 Antique CDV Cabinet Card Photograph Album & Irish Catholic Shrine

  

UNUSUAL 1890 ANTIQUE CDV CABINET CARD PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM & IRISH CATHOLIC SHRINE COMBINATION. Circa 1880's / 1890's, a very odd combination of CDV & Cabinet Card Photograph Album and Catholic House Shrine or Altar. The Photograph album is covered in a blue corduroy and folds down from an ornate brass clasp, now empty but with decorative pages and windows for 16 cabinets and 16 carte de visites. The album front (or back when opened) is a celluloid image of The Sacred Heart of Jesus. With the album folded down it reveals two ceramic devotional figures next to glass panels, which open on hinges.

On the left Jesus and the right Mary, both Sacred Heart figurines, partly glazed and painted bisque. The whole is topped by a sheet brass cross (a little bent). The main body of the item is wood covered with blue corduroy, now faded to olive where exposed to light. The lower plinth has a metal/tin facia.

To the back is a label' Pixie Weave. This is uncleaned and unrestored as found. There looks to have been some repair in the past with the addition of leather sections to the top back of the shine and to the floor sections internally. As mentioned before the corduroy is light faded. The lower right shrine hinge is broken but present.

There are a few old worm holes to the wood in places. Some loss to the fabric at the back, and to the paper to the base. Loss to the finish on the metal facia.

The album pages have some edge tears to some windows and other marks and wear, some old cockling and marks from damp. Please see photographs for detailed condition.

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