Lacquer Boxes from Kholui Village

The Kholui school of Russian lacquer miniatures is another one of the four villages that produce authentic Russian lacquer boxes. Kholui artists, like those of Palekh and Mstera, arrived later then Fedoskino to the art of lacquer miniatures, as they were also producing religious art works but that was stalled by the communist regime in the 1920s and 1930s. So the village artists turned to producing lacquer boxes as a way to succeed commercially, and soon became recognized as equals to the other 3 village. The Kholui school of lacquer miniatures is known for their more complicated and busy scenes, with many figures and many depictions of Russian fairy tales. Their color palette is also different, featuring lots of gold, black and reds, and Kholui boxes are prized by collectors.