Hermès Mini Kelly 20 II Cheval de Bois Noir Tadelakt Palladium Hardware

Hermès Mini Kelly 20 II Cheval de Bois Noir Tadelakt Palladium Hardware

Cheval de Bois, the wooden horse, is the 2024 limited edition that put marquetry on the Mini Kelly: a stylized rocking horse of individually cut wood veneers inlaid flush into the front panel, saddle picked out in warm tone against the black ground. The motif reaches back to the house's oldest subject, the horse, rendered here as the child's toy rather than the harness, and it places the bag in the small Hermès lineage of wood-on-leather craft alongside the Kellywood program.

The body is Noir Tadelakt, the smooth glazed calfskin whose lacquer-like surface deepens with handling, the right ground for inlay because it holds a flat, even plane. The wood elements are cut, fitted, and set by hand so the marquetry sits flush with the leather rather than riding on top of it. Palladium hardware keeps the metal cool against the warm wood, the interior is lined in tonal leather, and the removable strap converts hand carry to shoulder or crossbody wear.

Condition: 1 – Pristine
Stamp: W (2024)
Color: Noir
Leather: Tadelakt / Wood Marquetry
Hardware: Palladium
Interior: Tonal leather
Includes: Strap
Dimensions: 20 × 12 × 6 cm | 7.9" W × 4.7" H × 2.4" D
Handle Drop: 4.4 cm | 1.7"
Strap Drop: 47 cm | 18.5"

Collector's Insight:
The Mini Kelly II is the format Hermès now reserves for its most ambitious limited editions, and the Cheval de Bois ran for a single season in 2024. Marquetry on leather is among the rarest techniques in the bag program, demanding a separate craft discipline from the leather ateliers, and Sotheby's has featured the edition among the standout limited Mini Kellys since examples began surfacing at auction in 2025. The motif divides the edition from abstract limited pieces: it is figurative, immediately legible, and unrepeatable without the wood.

Resale Insight:
Limited-edition Mini Kelly IIs trade in their own tier above the standard leather bags, with single-season editions carrying the scarcity plainly and auction appearances serving as the market's reference points. Demand concentrates among collectors assembling the limited MK20 set, where the Cheval de Bois holds the craft position: the piece that brought a second métier onto the front panel. A pristine example with strap presents the edition as issued.

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