Love me and the world is mine

Box made of five pieces of soft pine glued together, with each cover further secured with four steel brads. The convex spine also seems to have been made separately, as two additional brads are placed along its center line. The fore edge panel slides down to reveal a sculpted snake. The whole box is decorated with V-shaped grooves following a pattern laid out in advance with pin pricks. The resulting fields were stained red and green, and finished with a clear varnish. The raised text on the front cover was off-set using the green stain. The inwardly beveled edges of the covers are coated in bronze paint, as is the small carved pull of the sliding panel. The snake is painted black with a pattern of red and white spots and has an iron pin for the tongue.. -- description by Mindell Dubansky in consultation with Lynn Heckman