Russian lacquer boxes are among the most beautiful and distinctive of that country's art achievements in the 20th century. The boxes feature intricately hand-drawn miniature paintings based on a variety of themes, including fairy tales, poems, country life, troikas, landscapes, battle scenes, and old art masterpieces. They get their name from the many layers of lacquer (most often, black and red) that are applied to both their outside and inside sections. Coats of clear lacquer, or varnish, are the last layers to be put on and provide a stunning shine to the box.

The boxes, which vary in size, are extremely well crafted. It can take as long as two months to make a box out of papier-mache, a material many artists prefer because of its ability to withstand changes in atmospheric conditions and to avoid cracking. The lacquer box sitting on your mantel today will likely be enjoyed by many generations.

But it's the miniature paintings that bring real value to the boxes. Lacquer artists must not only excel artistically, but must also have the patience to spend long stretches of time working on the many small intricate sections of their composition. Artists will typically use strong magnifying glasses on these spots and very fine brushes made out of a squirrel's tail.

The Villages

The boxes most widely sought after come from one of four small Russian villages - Palekh, Fedoskino, Kholui, and Mstera. Special schools have been established at these places where artists train for four years before they become members of each village's art community. Each village also has its unique style.

Artists from Fedoskino, the birthplace of Russian lacquer miniatures, use a more realistic style of painting than the other villages. They also use oil paints for their drawings instead of the egg-based temperas. Three to four layers of the oil paints, along with seven coats of lacquer, are applied to each box before it is completed. This layering brings out a radiant quality in the drawings and the colors seem to emanate from within. Sometimes, an underlay of gold leaf or mother of pearl enhances this radiance and adds a lovely iridescence of its own.

Boxes from Palekh might well enjoy the highest world-wide acclaim. The lacquer art of Palekh has been called "a small miracle", a label particularly fitting since that the village specialized in icon-painting for centuries until the 1917 Russian revolution. To many collectors, Palekh boxes have the most elegant look to them. When you hold one in your hand, you know you are holding something truly special. Most often in Palekh works, innumerable fine lines of gold leaf, polished to a glow by a wolf's tooth, are applied to the ornamental border and drawing itself. A simple one-color background then provides a beautiful contrast to the gold leaf and scene itself. This background, usually black, also serves to take the observer into a new world where one's concept of time and space is left to the imagination.

The village of Kholui, meanwhile, began painting lacquer miniatures in the 1930's, later than Palekh and much later than Fedoskino, where this art began in the 18th century. Perhaps because of the late start, Kholui artists are less bound to tradition or one particular style than the other villages, and seem to take a bolder approach to their works. Backgrounds for Kholui works are occasionally one solid color (like Palekh), but more often than not the artist fills this area with swirls of tone and shade. Partly for this reason, Kholui works appear brighter than Palekh boxes and seem to fill up more of the available space.

Boxes from Mstera, though, usually have the lightest colors. Artists there almost never choose black for their backgrounds, and instead use light blue, pink, gold or ivory colors. With the addition of these colors, landscapes generally play a more prominent role in Mstera works, and people and objects tend to take a place within the background setting rather than remain separate from it. In Mstera, a wide range of artistic talent exists. While some artists paint dynamic and elaborate scenes from fairy tales or famous battles, others concentrate on exquisite floral designs.

A Word about Authenticity

Every lacquer box is an authentic piece of art from Russia, although there exist different levels of quality.

Some of the best boxes are painted by fully credentialed artists employed in one of the above four villages at officially recognized organizations (where the box itself is created and assembled). These works, which are made out of papier-mache, are almost always of very high quality. They come with certificates of authenticity along with the village's trademark imprinted on the box itself.

Many talented Russian lacquer artists, however, now work outside these village organizations for creative and financial reasons, and no longer have continuous connections to them. Boxes from these artists may also be quite good, but usually do not come with a certificate because the artist is working independently. The boxes themselves, like those whichcome with certificates, are distinguished, in part, by their three-dimensional forms and a precision in their lines and borders.

Lastly, there is a third group of lacquer box artists - those that do many drawings each week in an assembly-line type operation. Each box is still individually drawn by hand and done in the style of one of the villages, but the drawings are usually of lower quality and the boxes themselves are rarely made out of papier-mache.  Usually these boxes are priced at less than $30.