At first I thought this antique merit award-type drawing was a snarky, or tongue-in-cheek portrait of an old spinster, which, as a happily unmarried woman in her late 40's, appealed to me personally, but then I realized it was surely a prize for the winner of what must have been a fierce Old Maid card game, or maybe long stretch of games. And indeed, Old Maid in its current incarnation dates to the early 1880s, popular in England as well as in the U.S. I've found one American Old Maid deck specially dated 1892 (as this drawing is), produced by McLoughlin Brothers of New York, which I'd love to think was the deck this winner was playing with!
4 1/4" x 3 1/6", black ink on laid paper, and in very good condition with a very light old crease at upper right, very minor.
