A RUSSIAN LACQUERED LIDDED BOX WITH A BATTLE SCENE
Russia or Western Provinces, late 19th - early 20th century

Of oval shape, resting on a flat base, painted in polychromes, gilt and lacquered, the lid painted with a battle scene featuring two military deployments on horseback, on the right a group of riders with tall white turbans on dappled white steeds, possibly indicating Arabian horses, on the left riders on brown steeds wearing brown coats with a fur lining around the neck and tall black cylindrical headdresses, possibly made of Astrakhan fur, the exterior and base painted in green, the interior skillfully painted in red and black tones imitating tortoiseshell, 3cm x 13cm x 8cm.

The characteristic features of the two military deployments suggest that the battle depicted could be a late 19th-century artistic reinterpretation of the clash between the Ottoman army and the Cossacks, possibly the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who defeated the army of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV in 1676. The distinctive Astrakhan fur cylindrical headdresses indicate a Central Asian - Slavic origin, in clear juxtaposition to the puffy white turbans. The fallen steed and rider in the foreground further corroborate the above suggestion, hinting at the impending defeat of the Ottomans.

At the end of the 19th century, the clash between the Cossacks and the Ottomans became a popular motif thanks to the famous painting by the Russian artist Ilya Repin, Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire, painted between 1880 - 1891 and now part of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The painting became a synonym of resistance and freedom from an intolerant, totalitarian, and (often) foreign power, and several full-size copies, parodies and sketches were reproduced like a 1923 Russian cartoon parody of the painting, "Bolsheviks writing a Reply to Englishman Curzon". It is likely that our box was produced around this time as a memento or souvenir.