Beware! Fox's Book of Martyrs: A Universal History of Christian Martyrdom, 1835 curioisity with a horizontal band of

with a horizontal band of diamond shapes around the center

and 2nd half 19th c seems right

so I carve some and play the fiddle

While I usually gravitate toward older carvings

with an early incarnation of the lettering still visible under the current hand-painted version

Beware! Fox's Book of Martyrs: A Universal History of Christian Martyrdom, 1835 curioisity with a horizontal band ofNot for the faint of heart! But pretty amazing! And made even better by the warning on the first page, in lieu of a cover: "To The Reader Beware if you are found with this Book in your possession you are in danger. Please be carefull [sic]." Plus symbolic representations of Pope Alexander and Christ. And then, just after the title page: "Please preserve. This is the last copy in existence," noted by Phil S. Heuss in 1942. Wow! A little research tells