The box "Theater of the Soviet Army", Fedoskino

The original box is in a good collector's condition. Wood, paint painting, varnish. Size 40*105*148 mm. Minor loss of paint along the edge of the lid. Without the signature of the master. Guarantee of authenticity.

Fedoskino miniature is a folk craft, a type of Russian lacquer miniature painting with oil paints on papier-mache, formed at the end of the XVIII century in the village of Fedoskino near Moscow. Since 1824, the factory has been owned by Moscow merchants Lukutin for 80 years. During this period, the products produced by the factory were widely known and popular not only in Russia, but also abroad. In 1828, Pyotr Vasilyevich Lukutin (1784-1864) received the right to brand the factory's products: a double-headed golden eagle was placed on the inside of the products, as well as the names or initials of the Lukutins who owned the factory. In 1831, at an art and industrial exhibition in Moscow, P. V. Lukutin was awarded a gold medal on the Annenskaya ribbon, and in 1839 - at an exhibition in St. Petersburg — a gold medal on the Vladimir ribbon. Alexander Petrovich Lukutin (1819-1888), who continued the business, also received a gold medal on the Annenskaya Ribbon at an exhibition in Warsaw; at that time 40 freelance workers — men, women and students worked at the factory; many of them came from the icon-painting workshops of Sergiev Posad and Moscow, some had an art education received at the Stroganov School. The names of some of them are known — S. I. Borodkin, A. A. Shavrin, A.V. Tikhomirov, D. A. Krylov, etc.

Favorite motifs of the painting of Fedoskinsky miniaturists were popular at that time subjects: "troika", "tea drinking", scenes from Russian and Little Russian peasant life. The most prized were caskets and caskets decorated with complex multi—figure compositions - copies of paintings by Russian and Western European artists. Miniatures were created for all kinds of peasant motifs: Russian Russian dances, dances, field work, everyday scenes, etc. At the same time, the artists relied on Russian lithography of the first half of the XIX century, on paintings by Russian artists.

In May 1910, ten craftsmen, on a large monetary loan allocated by S. T. Morozov to the Moscow provincial Zemstvo, established the "Fedoskinsky Labor artel of former masters of the Lukutins factory." The first products of the artel, aimed at sale to Moscow, were highly appreciated by the Moscow Zemstvo and the Handicraft Museum. In 1912, the artel employed 14 masters and nine students. The assortment of the artel consisted of about 160 items, which in their quality were not inferior to the famous Lukutinsky and significantly surpassed similar products of the Vishnyakov workshop. Already in 1913, the products of the artel were awarded a small gold medal at the All-Russian Exhibition of Agricultural Industry in Kiev. For some time, the image of this medal was stamped on the reverse side of the manufactured products. In the first post-revolutionary years, the artel experienced great difficulties caused not only by a sharp drop in demand for its products, but also by the negative attitude of the new authorities, who taxed the masters with an unbearable tax and even made repeated attempts to close the workshops. The turning point in relation to the Fedoskin miniature came after 1923, when these products were awarded a diploma of the first degree at the All-Union Exhibition of Agricultural and Cultural and Industrial Products in Moscow. Production began to gradually expand, the demand for Fedoskinsky products increased, which began to be actively sold abroad. The famous art historians A.V. Bakushinsky and V. M. Vasilenko rendered great creative assistance to the Fedoskinsky miniaturists in the 1930s.

In the 1930s and 1950s, Fedoskin's artists were mainly engaged in copying easel paintings. In order to expand the range of products and enrich the creative principle in the activities of the artel, an experimental workshop was created in 1945, the scientific and creative leadership of which was carried out by the Research Institute of the Art Industry. Lost methods of decorating products were revived — "scan", "tsirovka", "tartan", "malachite", mother-of-pearl painting, etc. For the first time, the miniature artists were tasked with transforming full-scale sketches into a decorative miniature. However, a fundamentally new stage in the history of Fedoskin miniature painting, marked by the growth of the author's beginning, occurred only at the end of the 1950s.

Artists create original author's works in which the traditions of the Fedoskino miniature are creatively reinterpreted. A great contribution to the development of Fedoskino art was made by: M. S. Chizhov, S. P. Rogatov, M. G. Pashinin, I. I. Strakhov, V. D. Lipitsky, P. N. Puchkov, etc. The main themes of their creativity are the nature of the Moscow region, Russian songs and fairy tales, the heroic past of Russia. In the 1960s, the artel was transformed into the Fedoskin Miniature Painting Factory. In 1931, a school of handicraft apprenticeship was established at the Fedoskinsky Artel (now the Fedoskinsky School of Miniature painting). In the 1950s and 1980s, the school trained specialists in lacquer miniature, Zhostovo metal painting and Rostov finish.