The Box of Astaroth - The Emerald Tablet Edition
Another Box of Astaroth leaves the studio featuring the famous print by the great Mathias Merian. My client wanted a box for a performance based on ancient magic and Alchemy so we agreed that the Emerald Tablet would be perfect.
The engraving, Tabula Smaradina (“Emerald Tablet”) is Merian’s interpretation of the alchemical cosmology, a schemata and representation of the order of things. It first appears in Johann Daniel Mylius Tractatus III Seu Basilica Philosophica (1618) and makes subsequent appearances in other works by the author, as well as in Lukas Jennis’ Musaeum Hermeticum (1625).
In its simplest interpretation the Emerald Tablet shows the opening of a complex heaven and the delivering of the philosopher’s stone to the earth.
In this piece, the spirit bell is suspended from a ribbon rather than a hook so not to detract from the image inside the lid. All of the components are antique and pre 1890, the interesting pewter pot dates from 1853 and is hand engraved.
