A mustachioed man peers wide-eyed from inside a large lidded wicker basket in this striking cabinet card produced by Sutton of Hornellsville, New York, almost certainly in the 1880s or early 1890s. The oversized format of the mount, taller and narrower than a standard cabinet card, gives the image an unusual vertical emphasis that suits its theatrical subject. The Sutton imprint appears in gilt script along the lower left of the mount face, with the city name printed alongside.

The man's curly dark hair frames an exaggerated, startled expression directed slightly off-camera. A large satin bow is tied across the front of the basket at chest height, and a lace-trimmed collar or cravat is visible at his neckline. The basket itself features a hinged, fabric-lined lid propped open behind his head, with a patterned carpet visible at the base and a paneled wall filling the soft-focus background.

The pose is clearly comedic and deliberate, suggesting either a stage performer or a novelty portrait session, a genre popular in small-town studios of the period as a means of attracting clientele with humorous or theatrical imagery.

The reverse bears a penciled notation reading "9s" in the upper right corner. The mount measures 8 1/4 by 4 inches.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer