"Memento Mori', box with German bone skull - 19th century

Memento Mori - Vanitas, mahogany wood circular box, lid with bone skull topped by a mouse e flanked by a squirrel and a snake.
A vanitas is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. The skull was the symbol of death from the 1500s onwards; previously death was represented as a skeleton. Skulls were very popular in the Baroque period and were not only an essential part of any Wonderland Room (Wunderkammer), but also acted as contemplative reminders of mortality.
Height 10 cm, dbase diameter 8.8 cm.
eight x width x depth skull: 4 x 4 x 3 cm. Weight 32 g.
Total weight 95.2 g.
Item condition grading: **** good.

CITES - Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97
This item has been made with materials non belonging to endangered species protected by CITES Convention (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora).