From: Michael Juliar, michael@juliar.com

Every once in a while, eBay gets a seller posting that’s a real hoot. Here’s the latest. I’ve asked the seller for the item’s provenance and the source of his story. If he responds with anything worthwhile, I’ll pass it on.

Aside from this demur beauty being the most unusual candy dish we've ever seen, it came with such an intriguing story that we just couldn't resist it.
It seems that sometime post Lolita, in the late 1950's, Nabokov hosted a book fair for hundreds of lusty, literary, female Groupies - an over-sexed crowd of middle-aged, Lolita wannabe's. And after signing and personalizing several copies for lucky door prize winners, one adoring fan returned the favor by presenting him with a butterfly candy dish filled with little pink candy "I Love You" hearts.
Years later, by way of a friend of a friend, that dish found its way to one of the dearest & sweetest L'l Ol' antiques dealers Madison Avenue has ever seen.

This magnificent trophy measures 4" by 6" and stands just under 4" tall to the top of the wing. It's in amazing condition with only a few tiniest rim chips and rough spots. Much of the original gilding still remains around the box rim and butterfly wings, and can be seen in my photos. In addition, side cameos also feature raised butterfly silhouette motifs.
We've had this dish for a good many years now and all our friends know its story by heart, so we thought perhaps it's time to pass it along to the next generation. Besides, it's become a little dated. All the teen sex sirens we know have changed their names to Monica, and those little pink "I Love You" hearts are now all made with fat free 'artificial sweeteners' - yuck! Which brings us back to Vladimir's original question - with the world's online marketplace just a click away - is nothing Sacred???
GOOD LUCK BIDDING.

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EDNOTE. NEEDLESS to say the "book fair" hosted by VN for LO groupies never happened.