The front of the Baby Jesus Jewelry Box features a Family Dog matchbook bearing the riveting slogan: “May the Baby Jesus Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Mind.” On the top center of the box, the other half of the matchbook lists a San Francisco address on Gough Street (in the infamous Haight district) and warns, “Close Cover Before Striking.” The Family Dog, a 60s group of counter-culture enthusiasts, used psychedelic artwork on groovy mediums, like handbills and matchbooks, to spread the word about weekly concerts in San Francisco that were put on by neighborhood bands like the Grateful Dead.
The sides of the Baby Jesus Box are covered with a verse that furthers the box’s biblical message, “And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. (Revelations 20.12).” The Baby Jesus Box takes its purple-pink theme and symmetrical rays of light from Alex Grey’s painting “Sophia.” Sophia’s two hands hold up sacred things on the front of the box: a lotus flower and a healing staff with winged snakes. Soft pink velveteen lines the box’s inside, with a slit for rings and space for treasures. And, fittingly, this box has a bizarre secret: on the bottom of the box is the centerpiece of Grey’s “Sophia,” an alien-baby head inside of which the earth is covered in eyeballs. The Baby Jesus Jewelry Box truly mystifies. Dimensions: 5” L x 3.5” W x 2.25” H. This box found a happy home!