Handmade Ink and Watercolor French Courtiers and Flower Sellers Paper Dolls dish set keeping one's pennies and quarters

keeping one's pennies and quarters super secure

there seems to be perhaps a bit of residue from a sticker in the top right corner

which left these wonderful faint shadow forms

concentration

It certainly seems it was created to serve a toggle-like function

Handmade Ink and Watercolor French Courtiers and Flower Sellers Paper Dolls dish set keeping one's pennies and quartersI take these hand drawn and watercolored paper dolls as representing French courtiers and flower sellers from the era of Louis XIV or so, though I am not entirely sure when they were made and whether a specific purpose; the level of execution is rather above and beyond that of paper dolls made by or for a child to play with! Perhaps they were background characters in an elaborate puppet show? Or made as part of a maquette for an opera set design? In