Art Nouveau Work

Art Nouveau work "Vanity Box" Precious wooden chest with carved frame lid. The lid and sides are decorated with tin plates in slight relief of scenes and sentences on the themes of the Vanities, Memento Muri and Tempus Fugit depicting women, human skulls and thistles. On the cover the first verses of "Etrennes du Parnasse for the year 1874" by Victor Hugo (after Ave, Dea: Moriturus te salutat): "Death and beauty are two deep things, which contain so much shade and azure it looks like, Two sisters equally terrible and fertile, Having the same enigma and the same secret ". On the frontal medallion the sentence "Here is a bit of my youth". On the right "Never again…" and on the left "Fugit Irreparabile". At the back "Pour Mlle JC" accompanied by the sentence "Da Nobis Odie… non servant" accompanying in particular a woman wearing the Phrygian cap. Each medallion carries a monogram. with its original key 15 x 46 x 27 cm