In "Malachite" Fedoskino artist S. Edvokimova-Belovodova pushes the envelope even further as far as the total overall beauty in a miniature form that she can create. Her Mystery of the Black Pearl and Sleeping Beauty boxes are both boxes to die for, but "Malachite" will completely dazzle the viewer with its exquisite beauty, rich color and unique formation of gemstones both on the top and bottom. The box features a very pretty young woman's face on the lid, her flowing blond hair kept in place by a thin golden bandana, punctuated at various points with very tiny gemstones. A larger clear stone forms part of her earring. (The earring looks green in the photo here, but it seems more clear when you look at it it person. It may just be reflecting some of the green around it in the photo). An ornamentation on her neck, meanwhile, glows with silver and an intricate design. But, of course, the most prominent characteristic of this piece are the fragments of green stone embedded all around the composition, and although we cannot be 100% sure, we do believe that it is real malachite. (We will try to get confirmation of that asap). The formation creates a fairy tale cave-like atmosphere for the piece and suggests that this woman is probably the "Princess of Copper Mountain", protector of the Malachite Mountains (from the Stone Flower fairy tale). The sides, bottom and inside of the work are painted in green with a webbed pattern of silver lines throughout. The bottom of the box is also unique, as it sits on four small rounded malachite stones. The box is signed under the lid with the name of the artist, village, title and year. A fabulous work! Besides our website, you can see other works of this artist in the book Lacquer Miniature - Catalogue of Works.

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.)