A tiny wooden bead with a world inside

Closed, this wooden bead is less than six centimetres across. Open it, and a miniature world appears: tiny people, horses, camels and buildings carved into boxwood. Made in the Netherlands in the early 1500s, it unfolds into detailed religious scenes. The Met thinks its makers probably used a magnifying lens. Its outside was meant to be touched while praying; its inside, opened and contemplated.

1/3