The Letter That Killed
This unique Art Nouveau masterpiece, with its powder-blue enamel surface, adorned with climbing vines and blood-red flowers, rises three feet tall, commanding attention in our halls.
The piece emerged in 1892 at a Parisian antiquities shop, where it caught the eye of Madame Celestine DuBois, a prominent patron of the arts. While the metalwork and floral patterns aligned with the Art Nouveau aesthetic, the piece harbored peculiarities that would soon reveal themselves.
Most striking is the mirror-black glass set within the void of the letter—a characteristic unique to this piece. This dark surface became the center of extraordinary events.
After commissioning its restoration, Madame DuBois displayed it in her private gallery. Visitors soon reported unsettling experiences: reflections of nonexistent gardens in the letter's dark center, and glimpses of unexplainable figures.
DuBois developed an obsession with the piece. Her writings reveal a woman consumed by "conversations with the flowers" and "messages written in golden vine." Staff reported hearing her voice from the gallery at odd hours, though she was alone.
During a winter soirée in 1893, Madame DuBois announced she had "solved the letter's riddle." Witnesses described how she approached the piece with outstretched arms, how the flowers briefly blazed with actual flame, and how she vanished.
Three days later, she reappeared physically unchanged but transformed. She spoke of a realm of eternal spring behind the letter's dark glass, where Art Nouveau's organic forms lived as entities. Though she later acquired similar pieces, none demonstrated the same properties as her 'D'.
The Illuminated D remains a popular exhibit, displayed under strict protocols. The dark center stays covered at night, yet visitors report phantom scents of flowers and whispers resembling Madame DuBois's voice.
The Illuminated D transcends mere artistry—it's a threshold between our world and something far more mysterious. Its marriage of beauty and the inexplicable makes it a perfect embodiment of the Ravensfield Collection's spirit.
-Indigo Ravensfield
