MINT! Rare, Beautiful and Fascinating: “Musique Des Dieux” (Music of the Gods) in Original Box and Tissue

What a find! Such a desirable and rare vintage Hermes scarf, the perfect gift for all lovers of music and the Classics, thirty years old, yet presented as new!

‘Musique des Dieux’ was designed by Claudia Stuhlhofer-Mayr and issued in 1996, the Year of Music.

Other wonderful designs that were part of the Year of Music, include the Les Ballets Russes by Annie Faivre; Zoe Pauwels’ contributed her fabulous La Musique des Sphères; and the talented Loïc Dubigeon designed not one but two exceptional carres that year, the New Orleans Creole Jazz and Salzburg.

The Musique des Dieux design uses a central circle to frame the mythical scene of the meeting between the God Pan and the nymph Syrinx. Around this is a frieze, made up of four scenes contained within rectangular bordered shapes with fauns, satyrs, centaurs, nymphs and the God Hermès, dancing and playing musical instruments. Each of the four corners of the scarf has a square frame with Greek key pattern borders containing named musical instruments. The words are written using the Greek alphabet.

The outer borders of the scarf have beribboned wreaths of leaves and fruit from a different plant on each of the four sides: ivy, grape vines, laurel and olive. Oak leaves with acorns surround the central frame. Four tiny key patterned squares are set at the outermost corners.

Instruments featured include the aulos and syrinx, or pan flute, a woodwind instrument, which paved the way for the modern-day harmonica.

The Kymbala, or cymbals, and the Tympanon, or tambourine, have not changed much throughout history

The Kithara, an advanced version of the Lyre, gave birth to the modern day guitar.

And who do we find at the centre? Is it the river god Achelous entertaining himself by playing a syrinx?

In one of her four “instrument” squares, Madame Stuhlhofer-Mayr cleverly incorporates the sign of Hermes, the famous Greek god responsible for wealth, luck and fertility. The cleverest and most mischievous of all the Olympian gods, Hermes was also their herald and messenger.

The figures are in black and white and are drawn in a similar way to those on Athenian Black-Figure vases. The background to these figures depicts instruments, foliage and columns, with leaves and fruits with the ribbons.

The story is told how Syrinx, an Arcadian nymph and the model of virtue, once changed herself into reeds to escape the attentions of the great Pan. The frolicsome, but wily god, however, cut these same reeds and formed them into a rustic flute, whose plaintive accents still pipe to us the frustration of the swain and the breathlessness of the beauty. Fauns, nymphs, satyrs, centaurs and the god Hermès in person, make a frieze to frame this primeval drama of sexual harassment. (see photo of the eighteenth century painting, “Pan and Syrinx”, currenty on display in the J. Paul Getty Museum).

The versatile design of this scarf means it works being worn in all sorts of ways, including criss-cross knot, cowl knot, waterfall knot; cowboy cowl, asymmetric wrap, half bow knot and collar knot.

This spectacular design has never been re-issued, making it a difficult and rare find – a truly divine carre.