I love the naïve items, hand made by local residents from the years before  American souvenirs were mass produced in other countries. This  back of this sizeable Cowrie shell has been cut out to form a handle, and the edges have been scalloped to form a basket. There are splotches of red paint on the scallops and the handle, and hand written in ink in an old fashioned hand inside of "Souvenir of  Tonawanda, Pa." Tonawanda is the county seat of Bradford county in the northeast of the state and in 2010 had just under 3,000 people. It's on the Susquehanna River, but needless to say, there are no Cowrie shells! Measures 3 1/2 by 2 1/4 by 2 inches high. I'm guessing it's from the early 1900's.