Zigarettendose
(cigarette case)
circa 1924
It is Beauty's briar rose rendered in enamel and gold, making
it all the more delicate to handle. The design is complicated, but also simple:
its visual success - or in other words, what makes it so eye-catching - relies
on the crisp quality of its central register which is set over a discreet gilt
roundel, but which uses only a few colours. With slabs of crescent-shaped red
enamel, the rose petals form six puddles against the dark green blanket of
leaves, each of whose buds seem to ripple outwards in slow motion. The gold
specks which blot the roundel's inside give the design a subtle asymmetry, reflecting
its Asiatic inspirations such as Japonisme and Chinese woodcuts. And while the
foliage appears to be a miniature panel of stencilled glass, the two diamond-set wings appear to be natural sources of light, each illuminating and flanking the
rose bed with geometric precision.
Among these details,
however, it is the coral clasp that plays the most important role. Not only
does it hold the piece together as well as indicate the top from bottom, but it
functions as a kind of bow - one that gives the case its final dab of colour,
like the finishing touch of paint on a picture. Clicking the clasp open, is it
possible to imagine the interior? Is it plain or elaborate, or does it reflect
the cool elegance of its exterior? Either way, the language of smoking is an
act of subversive communication, and with a tool such as this surely cigarettes are not the only things meant to be lit with desire.
