Plan - the decoration of a small box

The small, flat box was used probably for the protection of a small book, closed with a key, because the keyhole is marked in pencil on the drawing. This is also supported by the shapes of the sides, which are a transition between a protection cover and a small box (the sides are the same height as a thin book, and they can be closed by the two side wings like a door.) If it were a box, the largest surface with the figurái decoration would be the bottom, and could not be seen at all. According to the style and colours it belongs to thos many sketches made by Sándor Nagy between 1900 and 1905 that were realized in leather by Jenő Fischhof and Leo Belmonte. The ornaments of the closing sides refer, however, to the earlier years, since the lines of the stylized tendrils and the symmetrical motifs are soft and dynamic, contrary to the squared, broken contours of those applied later, from 1903. After the turn of the century, the artist often used narrative scenes as country genres. The quotation on the sides “Megvagy! így szól a vadász / gyönyöiTel... ” “S rezzent kézből kis pillangó elszáll... ” “A leány rab szép szem sugará- /nál... ” is a part from Mihály Vörösmarty's Szép Ilonka. The sketch can be dated most easily with the help of the marking: The deliberate S enframing the N - without the L letter of Laura Kriesch - was used only until 1902.