Joseph Cornell

The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, Charlottesville
The Pace Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1989

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. There is light wear to the exterior of the handmade box, including some scattered surface abrasions, light surface scratches and a few very minor partial losses along the edges. The glass is slightly loose. The wood at the back interior of the construction has cracked slightly, inherent with age. The box construction sits slightly offkilter on a flat surface.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"The Surrealists gave Cornell poetic license, as it were, to indulge in a fondness for the esoteric and the commonplace, a taste that should not be confused with the indiscriminate. They systematically stripped an object of its meaning only to replace it with another, more suggestive, one. Cornell appealed to the later generation of Pop artists for reasons other than his use of repetitive imagery. They saw in his work, mistakenly it would seem, declassified and desanctified common objects, which is more appropriate to the Surrealists' approach to imagery. But they also admired his work for its poetic resonance, and the way in which he established a dialogue between past and present. Although Cornell's images anticipate the 1960s, his reverence for his subjects and his sense of structure were neither blasphemous like the Surrealists's work, no kitsch like the Pop artists' ideas."
Diane Waldman, Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams, New York 2002, p. 77