Antique Russian Hand Painted and Lacquered Wood Box. Rectangular with a hinged lid and key slot. The inside is red felt, with a faded and washed out marking on the inside of the lid indicating it was made at the workshop of Vishnyakov, in Fedoskino, Russia, likely between 1870 and 1920. 

Condition: Painting on the top shows significant cracking throughout. 

Size: 3 1/2 x 8 x 4 1/2 in. 

The Fedoskino miniature is a traditional Russian lacquer miniature painting on papier-mache, named after its original center of production, Fedoskino, a village near Moscow. Widely known and popular from the late 18th Century onward, contemporary Fedoskino painting preserves the typical features of Russian folk art. The use of oil paint applied in many layers, as well as the use of mother-of-pearl, pure gold, or silver leaf under segments of the background to create the effect of a shimmering glow or silvery sparkle, is the hallmark of these works. Many boxes are painted inside and outside in imitation tortoiseshell, birch bark, mahogany or tartan. The heyday of the miniatures dwindled in the second half of the 19th Century, but experienced a massive resurgence once former icon painters entered the industry after the fall of the Russian Empire. In 1931 the opening of a vocational school dedicated to miniature painting at Fedoskino ensured the perpetuation of the art form, and it continues to this day long after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The most popular motifs used in Fedoskino miniature are troikas, scenes from Russian peasant life, and folklore, and they adorn boxes mainly used for tea-drinking and samovar.

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