Iron multiple with copper nails, 1921, annotated with the artist's name and titled in white paint on the handle, numbered from the edition of 5000, also with a numbered and signed certificate card, published in 1974 by Luciano Anselmino, Turin, 16.5 x 9.9 cm. (6½ x 3 7/8 in.)


‘Cadeau’ was Man Ray’s first Dada object in France; conceived at the opening of his 1921 exhibition in Paris. Man Ray passed by a shop displaying domestic items and procured from it the flat iron, a box of flathead nails, and a small tube of glue. Once back at the gallery, Man Ray glued a row of nails down the base of the iron, entitled it ‘Cadeau’, and added it to the exhibition – displaying how a slight alteration is enough to transform a common object into a something subversive.