This masterpiece box from Kholui artist E. Grachev shows a beautiful panoramic view of St. Petersburg. Instead of us naming all the landmarks here, we suggest you go to the wikipedia page here and see how many you can identify in the drawing. And perhaps dream a bit about the places you will visit at some point in your life. Each of the landmarks comes with gorgeous details, such as the elaborate outer wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress, surrounded by the Neva River. There is a tiny moon in the horizon, and all the buildings are painted in soft blues and blues and greens; It is night, the historic city is asleep with not a soul is on the street. Cutting through the serene atmosphere is the radiant gold of some of the domes and cupolas of the cathedrals and churches. All around the tall sides of the box is an exceedingly well done and complex gold ornament that must have took many many hours to draw. The box is made out of high quality papier mache and stands on four small rounded legs. It is signed with the name of the artist, village, title and year. The back story to this box is that it was done almost 10 years ago, and has been sitting in one of our cabinets ever since as a layaway purchase. Unfortunately, we have not heard from the person who put the box on layaway for four years now and our efforts to get in touch with him have failed. (Ordinarily a person has 2 years to pay off a box of this nature on layaway.) So we think the time is right to bring this one out again and find a suitable home for it. Its a wonderful piece and as fresh as the day we acquired it many years ago.

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.)