Still can't open these

These came from the Winns variety store that used to be in the Twin Oaks shopping center at Oltorf and Congress, gone since 1990 or so and still very much missed. The price was 85 cents. Needing a brush of a certain sort for tempera poster paints, I went digging around, but, apart from some water-color brushes, these are all that are to be found. They're smaller than I remembered them to be and still too pretty to open and use. Intense, handsome colors are used for the paint on the handles. The card bears letterpress printing front and back. There's a grommet at the top for hanging the item from a nail for display. Using one piece of white thread, with the two ends hand-knotted together on the back, these brushes are sewn to the card, held at the non-working end of the ferrule and about three quarters of the way toward the end of the handle. The sans-serif type face employed for all but the "DO IT YOURSELF" UTILITY BRUSH heading has a 'Thirties or 'Forties feel. The origin is Japan.