This painting originated in a climate dominated by the Munich Conference of 1938, where the telephone played a role of great importance. The title alludes to the looming threat of war, which was temporarily averted through the treaty sealing the annexation of the German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia by Germany. In this precisely detailed, disquieting still life a damaged telephone receiver is suspended above a plate with two fried eggs in the midst of a barren coastal landscape reminiscent of the view from Dali’s house in Port Lligat. Everything is caught in a state of suspension, barely held up by thin supporting sticks or branches. The telephone receiver seems to exude a magical power - as if the rim of the plate were being sucked up towards it, only to melt into a large drop that touches the razor blade held in place below, which in turn seems ready to slice into the yolk of the egg on the right in the very next moment