Beautiful 19th C. Smoke Decorated Lidded Storage Tin with Handles horse drawing with wear and paint loss

with wear and paint loss as evident

but I must say I like these even better

but the arched pieces at bottom

and I've been talking to her (naming her "Helmet Head" along the way

which left these wonderful faint shadow forms

Beautiful 19th C. Smoke Decorated Lidded Storage Tin with Handles horse drawing with wear and paint lossA friend and fellow antiques dealer was expressing to me just the other day his enamourment with smoke decorated objects; I must admit I'd never paid super close attention, but then came across this tin and I must say I'm smitten. Smoke decorating, or smoke painting, became popular in the late 18th century and was used well into the 19th, done by manipulating a sooty candle over the surface of a newly painted object, still wet, to produce various