Brass Leaf-Form Vide-Poche, French Work, circa 1970

This leaf-shaped vide-poche in cast brass is the kind of small, considered object that reveals the character of a well-appointed interior as much as any major piece of furniture. Modelled after a naturalistically observed leaf — its central vein, lateral ribbing, and slightly curling edges faithfully rendered in the casting — it performs the intimate domestic function of the tray: receiving keys, coins, cufflinks, and small personal effects at the moment of return and preserving them in a place of quiet order. At 27.5 centimetres long and 9 centimetres across, it has the proportions of a real leaf, and the warm gold of the brass gives it a presence on a desk, console, or dressing table that a purely utilitarian object could never achieve.

The leaf form has been a constant in European decorative arts from antiquity to the present. Acanthus, laurel, oak, and ivy appear on capitals, friezes, and mouldings from ancient Greece through the Baroque; the naturalistic plant studies of the eighteenth century botanists and ornamentalists gave rise to a vast vocabulary of rendered leaf forms in porcelain, silver, and bronze; and the mid-twentieth century revivals of naturalistic design — in part a reaction against the austerities of high modernism — returned to the leaf with fresh attention. A small cast brass object in this form belongs to that tradition without being defined by it: it is specific, tactile, and immediately legible.

In fine condition with a warm golden patina. The vide-poche is among the most personal of decorative objects — present at the rituals of daily life in a way that a painting or a piece of furniture is not. This example, with its assured naturalism and honest material, would make an equally pleasing addition to a period interior or a more contemporary setting. Length: 27.5 cm. Width: 9 cm. Depth: 3 cm.