Lacquer Box
Russian lacquer painted box, in Palekh style. The box is all black lacquer on the outside, all red lacquer on the inside, with the central design on the hinged lid and gold embellishes on each side of the box, and is completed with a clear lacquer to give it a glossy finish. Painted is a scene wherein seven bogatyrs are pictured conversing with a tsarevna (daughter of a tsar), alongside two horses. The bright colors in the painting and the complex gold ornamentation covering the box is typical of the Palekh style. The box is inscribed with the title "Fairytale about the Dead Tsarevna" and the village "Palekh."
See Cultural Context, Reference, and attached images for more information.
- Object: Lacquer Box
- Artist: -
- Circa: -
- Dimensions: 5.75" L x 3.75" W x 1.5" H
- Culture Area: Russia
- Cultural Group: Palekh
- Cultural Context: Russian lacquer boxes are made from papier-mache; layers of cardboard glued together and tightly compressed. When it is still wet, the papier-mache is pressed into shapes for making boxes: flat panels and curved pieces. The material is then placed into a hot linseed oil bath and dried gradually for 30 days in a special airtight oven. Then it is put into an oven like the one pictured at right. Similar "ovens" are used between other steps in making a box, as well, to provide a stable and safe environment for the box to mature. The primed box is given to another artisan, who covers it with black lacquer on the outside, and red lacquer on the inside, then dried again. (Every once in a while, different colors other than black and red are used, but these two are by far the most common.) It takes about 45 days for the papier-mache to be dried, the box to be joined and primed, and then covered with the base lacquer. The photo below shows an artisan in the final preparatory stages of making a box. She is covering the exterior of some boxes with black lacquer. Now the box is ready to be painted. It is this step, more than any other, that gives the box its character and value. As a preliminary step, the artist makes a preparatory sketch and lightly scratches the drawing on the surface of the box. Sometimes Fedoskino artists will also add an inlaid piece of mother-of-pearl to the surface of the box at this point, as well. Then the actual plaiting, which can take from less than a day to more than a year, depending on the size and complexity of the piece, begins. Artists from Fedoskino use oil paints to create their art, while Palekh, Mystera, and Kholui artists use egg tempura paints (the traditional medium of icon-painting). Below, you see Palekh artist and Ksenia Grinishina at work, putting the final touches on one of her boxes. Near the end of the painting process, lacquer artists, particularly from Palekh, will often add ultra-thin strokes of gold paint to their works and polish the gold with a wolf's tooth. The gold will achieve a magnificently radiant shine. The box is now ready to be covered with a number coats of clear laquer, often as many as ten layers. Each layer of lacquer must be dried completely before the next coat is applied, a process that will take more than a week. Along with this, the box is also polished several times, both by a mechanical wheel and by hand. The woman on the right is busy polishing the clear lacquer on a wheel. The wheel has been covered with velvet to ensure that the lacquer will have a smooth polished appearance, free from scratches. The inscription on this box says "Fairytale about the Dead Tsarevna," which is a partial title of Pushkin's "Fairytale about the Dead Tsarevna and the Seven Bogatyrs"--essentially, it's Pushkin's Russian-language rhymed verse retelling of the western tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Pushkin is sort of like the "Shakespeare" figure for Russian literature--he's often called the "Father of Russian Literature." His dates are 1799-1837, and he wrote in ALL imaginable literary genres, including several fairytales in verse, some (like this one) based on western tales, some based on Russian tales, and some completely made up. It also says "Palekh," which is a village that is famous for making these boxes. There are four major styles of the boxes, Palekh, Fedoskino, Mstera, and Kholui. The Palekh style has bright colors and lots of complex gold ornamentation, so this a very typical sample. See Reference and attached images for more information.
- Donor: Cindy Avenell
- Catalog #: 119.036