Cornell's Box of Taglioni's Jewel Casket

Joseph Cornell spins the story of ballerina Marie Taglioni on the lid of her box. This is a beautiful brown box with brown velvet with three rows of four glass cubes resting in slots on blue glass. There is a glass necklace hanging near the inscription that tells the story of this beautiful ballerina and why he has created this box:

"On a moonlight night in the winter of 1835 the carriage of Marie Taglioni was halted by a Russian highwayman, and that enchanting creature commanded to dance for this audience of one upon a panther's skin spread over the snow beneath the stars. From this actuality arose the legend that to keep alive the memory of this adventure so precious to her, Taglioni formed the habit of placing a piece of artificial ice in her jewel casket or dressing table where, melting among the sparkling stones, there was evoked a hint of the atmosphere of the starlit heavens over the ice-covered landscape."

This is Taglioni’s Jewel Casket. Cornell has named it thus. He created it for her, for her legend, to let her name go on. She will never see it, or own it, or comment on it. It’s a romantic scene of ice and jewels that relates to a legend that we love to hear.