To begin to describe all of the action in this box depicting the Russian fairy tale "The Frog Princess" would be futile. It is so filled with images and creativity that it might take pages of writing to do adequately. So we leave it to you to read the fairy tale and identify all the goings-on here, some of it right from the pages of the story, and some from the artist's imagination. Needless to say, the colorful large work is magnificently laid out and rich in details, many of which are embellished with delicate brush strokes of radiant gold. (The actual box seems much richer in gold and color than the pictures here, which seem a little washed out. We will try to get some better shots of it in the coming days). Boxes like this don't happen overnight, and this one probably took many months to complete. The leafy frame, which contains other images as well, serves to frame the drawing and undoubtedly took many hours to do just by itself. The decoration along the sides is even more spectacular, and unusual, as the artists incorporated more the three dozen characters (many of them their signature "heads") into the drawing. The box itself is made out of high quality papier mache and sits on four small rounded legs. It is signed on the bottom with the name of the artists (K. and S. Komogorovy), village and title. A masterpiece work that many generations of your family will be talking about. These artists are know for their extremely elaborate and creative boxes, and one of them can be found in the recently published book
Russian Lacquer Miniatures.

Lacquerbox Condition Ratings

Surface Condition (exterior)	Surface Condition (interior/bottom)	Box Materials and Soundness	Hinge and Lid Placement	Signature	Total Rating	Mother-of-pearl Condition
9.5	9.5	10.0	10.0	10.0	49	N/A

(Each category rated 1-10. For low scores, look for explanation in the description of box. In general, any total rating over 40 is excellent. For more information on rating system, click here.)