The present work is a tour de force of Dalí’s sculpture practice. Assembled using an imaginative application of found objects, it is strikingly contemporary in nature. Its diverse elements include a loaf of bread purchased in 1968 at Polaine which serves as a turtle shell, two spatula-like birds purchased at Boubée on the Place Saint Michel and two butterfly wings which use specimens borrowed from the Natural History Museum in Paris. The enamel eyes of the birds beckon the iconic Eye of t.mes as well as many other important works by the artist. According to the catalogue raisonné, this piece required more than two years of work.

Containing some of his most important and adored motifs - sea creatures, skeletons, turtles, bread and butterflies - this iconic sculpture is a unique work made specifically for Mafalda Davis, a former lady-in-waiting to Egyptian King Farouk's consort, Queen Fawzia, who had a long-standing creative friendship with Dalí. The two collaborated on an incredible set of gold silverware, tabletop objects and other vivid gold-colored items, many of which were sold at her estate sale alongside the present work.

Dalí explained this work to his friend the artist Alain Bosquet: “It is a project for a vase. The skeleton is one of the prettiest I have ever found. I correct it through drawing: the spatula should be plated twice and we will produce the two in massive gold in the form of a recipient. In addition to the vase that I mentioned to you, there will be in rock crystal another double recipient on the motif of the bird skeleton: on one side you will see the red wine pour through and on the other, white wine. You know that the structure of my personality is always binary” (Robert & Nicolas Descharnes, op. cit, p. 89).