Mushroom Picking Lacquer Box

If you know much about Russian, you know they love their mushrooms!  Nikolai Molodkin, the painter of this box, must be a big fan of gathering mushrooms.  The fantastical scene here reminds me of my trip into the woods outside of St. Petersburg on a quest to find at least a few mushrooms left by the trainful of pickers who disembarked from the train faster than I and ran into the woods with the eagerness of children on Christmas morning rushing at their presents.  This Mushroom Picking Lacquer Box depicts the mushroom I was looking for:  at least 12 feet tall, this vision of a mushroom grows in the center of a picnic by the lake shore, where the pickers have paused for refreshment.  And on top of the mushroom, a snail!  The beauty of every detail wrenches the heart; if only life were so fantastic!  The scene was dreamed up by a visionary, who had the extreme talant to record it in miniature.  Bravo!

Titled "The Mushroom Pickers" and signed by the artist.  Mstera. Hinged lid.

Unfortunately, this eloquent vision is only interrupted by a 2" crack in the lacquer on the top of the box, bringing us back to reality.  This crack can only be found after careful study.  But alas, we therefore drop the price significantly.  But only so far, as this is one of those very special boxes that I hate to see move beyond my view.  I take comfort in the thought that if you buy it, I will still have at least of photo and a pleasant memory of it.