This box was designed in Palekh, a small village in Russia’s Ivanovo region famous for its exquisite lacquer‑miniature painting tradition, in the 1980s. Palekh artists paint intricate fairy‑tale and folklore scenes on papier‑mâché boxes, using delicate egg‑tempera colors over a deep black background and highlighting details with shimmering gold. Renowned worldwide, Palekh miniatures blend medieval iconographic aesthetics with vivid storytelling, making each piece a jewel of Russian folk art.

The painted scene illustrates a Russian fairy tale titled “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights (Seven Bogatyrs).” This is the title of an 1833 poem by Alexander Pushkin, a Snow White-like story of a tsarevna (princess) cast out by her jealous stepmother​.

Condition: Very good with some wear associated with age (see images).