Shaw + Nodder 1792 Ambystoma Mexicanum (Mole Salamander) Hand-Colored Copper Engraving vintage cloth doll and two other whimsy chains

and two other whimsy chains

and very human

There is one tiny chip at the lip

Hard-scrabble feeling

which looks to me perhaps original to it

Shaw + Nodder 1792 Ambystoma Mexicanum (Mole Salamander) Hand-Colored Copper Engraving vintage cloth doll and two other whimsy chainsThis is a striking and wonderfully surreal looking hand colored Shaw and Nodder copper engraving of a Mole Salamader, or Ambystoma Mexicanum, dated 1792. Recently, I found a couple of Shaw and Nodder engravings that had been enhanced with additional watercoloring and annotation by a holder of them in the first half of the 19th century; that is not the case here, but those heightened my awareness of them, and then I found this one in Vermont this week.