Lies Cosijn, 'The Box of Pandora', ceramic box with lid, ca. 1978

Lies Cosijn hand shaped this beautiful ceramic box 'The Box of Pandora' ('De Doos van Pandora'). The walls are decorated with figures and a text which are scratched in the engobe layer. On one side there is a chequered floor with two nude figures. On the other side a bird is drawn with above the text 'she was so beautiful it was as if she was born without her parents' ('zo mooi was zij alsof ze was geboren zonder haar ouders'). The same text can be found on a similar ceramic box of Cosijn from 1978. On the lid there is a sitting female figure. The box is signed on the bottom 'CL 247'.
Lies Cosijn (1931-2016) was a Dutch ceramist. Her work is often poetic with dreamlike scenes, but at the same time also shows quite realistic or even bizarre and provocative scenes.