TABAC BOX OLIVE WOOD  MARQUETRY TARACEA EROTICAL GREEK MYTHOLOGY NYMPH GOAT 19TH C
 
We present here, an antique European cigarette box made in noble olive wood, using marquetry or "tarcea" workmanship, representing a scene of a Greek fairytale,The Goat Girl, where a beautiful girl who was born as a tender goat from a praying couple who weren't able to have children, becomes the Prince's fiancee.  So, this tale is both, a fertility pray and a hidden beauty story: 
A couple had no children; the wife prayed for any child, no matter what. One day, she gave birth to a baby goat. She grew up as playful as any child. Her mother wished that her father could have a jug of water, and the goat said she could carry it, if her mother tied it to her horns. She carried it to her father, and when she was coming back, she took off her skin in the woods to clean it. A prince saw her and fell in love. Though his parents and her parents were opposed, he grew sick with his love, and the queen insisted on the match, so her parents gave the goat to the queen, and the prince grew well again.
The prince and his parents went to a wedding. The goat girl changed into a golden gown and went to the wedding herself; after the dancing, she threw a golden apple among the guests to confuse them and fled, and the king and queen admired her beauty. On the second day, the same thing happened. On the third day, the prince ordered an oven heated in the bakery and told his parents he would not go. When the goat girl went, he seized her skin and burned it. When she returned, she tried to throw herself into the oven after the skin, but the prince restrained her, and they had a grand wedding. 
The box has some professional restoration at the corners but won't affect the central scene at all.
Exquisite work of art from late Victorian period.

MEASURES: 100mm 80mm diameter, 43mm thickness.
ESTIMATED AGE: 19th Century 
GENERAL CONDITIONS: very good general conditions. Please refer to the pictures.