Evocative Unfinished 19th Century Cut Paper Silhouette

I find this quite poetic. Clearly, it is an earlier 19th century "hollow cut "silhouette, c. 1830s I would guess, made to be placed against dark paper or fabric (the inverse of a positive silhouette, cut from black paper and pasted down)--but it appears to have been abandoned before finishing. (Finishing could have meant further cutting, but more likely painting the rest of his bust directly on the white paper, then framing the whole thing against black.) Perhaps just a practice effort (not a lot of right edge margin for completing him), I'm not sure; whatever the case, just this floating face in the negative now, framed by the sharp edge of a collar, feeling like a single gesture, and to my eye quite alive, and with a tiny cut for the eye lashes making it feel all the more so. I would float it in a frame between two pieces of glass so the hollow remains a void, all about presence/absence, materiality/memory, etc. 

4 7/8" x 3 7/6". Some scattered stains to the paper, I think all to the good. With a watermark (as documented by holding to light): Gibson, so squarely placed as to feel as if whispering his name!