Anyone familar with the Lord of the Rings trilogy will immediately recognize the characters depicted in this classy box by Palekh artist Vera Smirnova. Within the circle, starting at the top and going clockwise are Aragon, Gandolf, Frodo and Lagolas - all solid characters with hearts of gold. If you look closely, the circle is actually the "One Ring" which, when heated in the story, reveals an inscription written in the Black Speech of Modor. The words roughly translate to "One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them; One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" and Smirnova draws light impressions of these words in authentic looking script on the ring. Gollum, meanwhile, a not-so-good creature, who was corrupted by the Ring, crouches just outside of it and looks menacingly at the viewer. Smirnova draws radiant gold flames shooting from the ring, suggestive of the heat that is needed to uncover its secret. The faces of all characters are strikingly realistic with exquisite detail, accentuated with the intricacy of the gold and silver lines. Around the sides of the box, the artist paints gold line drawings of some haunting images from the trilogy. The box stands on four small feet and has a hinge at the side. The interior is red. Smirnova wrote her name, village, year and title of the piece in gold at the bottom of the composition.

A truly unique and exciting work where Smirnova brings three related fields together (art, literature and film) and creates this one mini masterpiece.