Melon-shaped box

This melon-shaped box is one of a number of magical fruits Dagobert Peche designed shortly after World War I, probably inspired by the legendary golden apples of Greek mythology that Hercules retrieved from a tree guarded by nymphs known as the Hesperides. Peche even covered an apple in gold foil and hung it from a tree, proclaiming, “Look at the magic I made!” The vine tendril that is balanced atop the melon suggests growth and fertility. The box is both functional as well as sculptural, and it opens to reveal a hidden storage space within.

Ironically Peche lived in extremely poor conditions while designing such flights of fancy. Having spent part of World War I in neutral Switzerland heading the Zürich branch of the Wiener Werkstätte, he returned to Vienna in 1919, a time of severe shortages and rationing. Perhaps designs like these were a form of escapism for him – or a reaffirmation of life itself—as if he were creating a garden of paradise at a time of deprivation and despair.