The influence of a Fable

"A Fox and a Raven" by Aesop, as told by Sir Roger L'Estrange in 1692

A certain Fox spy’d out a Raven, upon a Tree with a Morsel in his Mouth, that set his Chops a watering: but how to come at it was the Question. Oh thou blessed Bird! (says he) the Delight of the Gods and of Men! and so he lays himself forth upon the Gracefulness of the Raven’s Person, and the Beauty of his Plumes: his admirable Gift of Augury, &c. and now, says the Fox, if thou hast but a Voice answerable to the rest of thy excellent Qualities, the Sun in the Firmament could not shew the World such another Creature. This nauseous Flattery sets the Raven immediately a gaping as wide as he ever could stretch, to give the Fox a taste of his Pipe; but upon the opening of his Mouth, he drops his Breakfast, which the Fox presently chopt up, and then bad him remember, that whatever he had said of his Beauty, he had spoken nothing yet out of his Brains.

This whimsical necklace begins with a large black onyx carved as a bunch of grapes and used as the focal pendant. Alternating between matte finished onyx cubes are plump bunches of peridot and pearls, nearly ripe.

On one collarbone rests the cinnabar sterling box clasp carved with the images of two haughty ravens,

and on the other is an antique 19th century waistcoat button embossed with the head of the sly Reynard. The back is a double chain of hand linked polished onyx rondels. It is intended to be worn with the fox gazing enviously at the ravens perched among the fruit-laden vines.

Leon Rousseau's painted panel of "The Fox and the Crow", 19th century French