Imaginary objects

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Lemarchand's Box
Source: The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker	Editor: tallman
Info: The puzzle box (also known as the Lament Configuration) made by Philip Lemarchand, a French maker of mechanical singing birds. He created the Box that summons the Cenobites across the Schism from hell. However, the box is more than just the key to the door that leads to hell: the box is a puzzle. Something that needs to be solved. Something that requires the desire of someone to work at it in order to unlock its secrets. The puzzles wait, each indestructible and watched over by a guardian angel - or, in this case, demon. Each guardian sees that each box reaches the hands of a prospective candidate for hell. In making the Box, he added "to the acuity and technical genius of the Chinese... a perverse logic that was entirely his own." As it's solved, it plays a short tune that is made longer the further the solver progresses. As the fourth piece is removed, the Great Bell begins to toll ("a steady somber tolling"). When it's finally solved, it opens the Schism so that the Cenobites can cross and offer the solver their pleasures.
Images: The Box, Panel 1, Panel 2, Panel 3
See Also: The Cenobites
Further Reading: The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker. The Hellraiser series of films was based on this novella as well. The Hellbound Web is also an excellent source for information regarding this subject.