Some pieces of history will never be found. These are pieces that were used up, loved to threads, unwanted, situation-ally unlikely to survive, deemed unimportant…. then lost to time.
Every so often I think about these pieces from time to time, wondering if there is a single example out there, what we are missing because we haven’t held it in our sight line or hand…
Here is my challenge to you readers……
Find a textual description of an item that is Unlikely to Ever be Found… And share it here in the comments below.
Here I offer one such example:
The below clip is from The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, 1862. In the “Book of the Month” column, the author is reviewing Female Life in Prison, by a Prison Matron. The passage describes dolls, “prison dolls”, roughly created by inmates. Such a doll is unlikely to have survived many days within the prison walls and less likely to leave the prison. As described, I can not imagine one, if it did escape, being saved long unless tucked deep inside a sentimental trunk. 
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 
That is so very fascinating!! Thank you for sharing!
I don’t have an example to share, but I think it would be interesting to see an attempted reconstruction of one of these “prison dolls”. The description seems to be quite detailed, so someone in the know, as it were, might be able to come up with an approximation. Maybe someone has one of these dolls stashed away in an attic or cellar somewhere and has no idea what it is; images of a reproduction might clue them (and us) in.
While looking through a bunch of older shell and other buttons found for sale and purchased, I found a string of mostly black buttons. Something told me to keep an eye on it. A year or so later after reading Bernadette Loftier-Atkins book of “Widows and Weeds” my answer was found. During the Civil War years, it was a “fad” for girls to trade and collect different buttons. These were strung on thread/string. When the collection got long enough, you were to meet the man you were to marry. What a find and what interesting buttons! I have gone through the buttons kept for Civil War sewing and have been able to re-string and add on the collection.