This compartmented box, with beautiful craquelure on the casing, has all the typical imagery of the artist. The boxes that Cornell assembled find their roots in the paintings of Cabinet of curiosities or Cabinet of Wonders, fashionable in 18th and 19th Century’s European aristocracy. Cornell used the apothecary cabinets in a number of his works since the 1930s and 40s (Pharmacy, 1943, 38.7 x 30.5 cm, coll. Paul Sharer) and the two little black and white portraits refers to his Medici series (see Untitled-Pinturicchio Boy, 1942, Glenstone & Untitled - Medici Princess c. 1948, Private collection NY). The Medici reference is also in the little seated lion, one of the symbols of power of the famous noble Italian dynasty. The box with the beetle stamp (a symbol of regeneration) is reminiscent of his early collages. The portraits of the Medici, the contemporary funfair coloured balls and the found objects are all typical elements of his assemblages communicating to the viewer a cryptic and poetic story.