Design - leather wallet

The front and back of the wallet are decorated with an asymmetrical, rococo cartouche, arranged symmetrically on the two sides of the middle fold. The fields are decorated with floral and figural ornaments. Both decorations are related to the designs of Sándor Nagy, made between 1900 and 1905, used first of all on leather objects, wallets, shades and picture frames. The picture on the right shows bent, dry, twiggy flowers and reminds us of a leather writing pad in the collection of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, which was designed by S. Nagy and realized probably by Leo Belmonte (see Cat. 225). On the other hand, the decoration of the back, with the day-dreaming shepherd in front of a typical, often pictured Transylvanian background, recalls the idealised genre pictures frequently used by the artist. Its closest analogies are the illustrations made in 1902 for “The Tales of Uncle Móka” from Ignázc Halász.