A scene from the the Mad Tea Party chapter of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is drawn here with great panache by Palekh artist Vera Smirnova. The table is set and each character takes a prominent place at the table. The whole scene is bubbling with life (despite the fact that in keeping with the nonsensical nature of Carroll's story, Alice leaves at the end of the party and says it's the stupidest thing she has been to!) The Mad Hatter is on the left side and brings a strong presence to the stage with his elaborate dress and blown back hair. Perhaps even more intiguing is the Cheshire Cat in the tree who, according to the story, can appear and disappear at will, leaving only his famous grin. The artist gives a sense of this by partly blending the fur of his body into the tree. His tail, for example, is marked with tiny strokes of fine gold lines, not all that dissimilar to the leaves of the tree around it. The gold that Smirnova uses is extraordinarily radiant (her trade secret) and commands the viewer's attention, drawing it to various objects and characters on and around the table. The box has a traditional expertly drawn gold ornament around the sides. The material used is high quaility paper mache, and the box sits on four very small legs. It is signed with the name of the artist at the bottom. The title, village and year is painted around a branch of the tree at the top right. A box as magical as the story!