Lately, the Russian lacquer boxes that have hit the streets and shops are produced by untrained artists. There is a lot of money to be made as people inadvertently end up paying hundreds of dollars for fake boxes posing as genuine. This in turn results in the depletion of revenue for the original artists.

There is another category of Russian lacquer art called reproductions. These usually come marked ‘reproduction’, or are produced in such a way that they look different and are not mistaken for the original. The artist might add a personal element or something that wasn’t part of the original painting to produce a print that doesn’t look like the original art even though it was inspired by the original. Also, not everyone who graduates from art schools goes to work in factories where the salary is much lower than what an artist can earn independently.

What makes things uncontrollable is that there is no copyright for the use of the names of the four schools of art. Even fake and non-professional artists can use them. On the original Russian lacquer boxes, the writing on the bottom of the box is the title of the scene being enacted, the name of the person who painted the box, and the name of the city in which it was made, which is synonymous with of the style

One way to tell if the lacquered box is a fake is to determine if it’s made of papier-mâché or a cheap substitute. Russian papier mache lacquer boxes take 6-10 months to complete. Lately, both skilled and unskilled artists are switching to boxes made of non-traditional materials such as wood, acrylic, or clay, speeding up the production process by many months.

The traditional process of curing papier-mâché boxes before the painting process begins is disrupted by poor substitutes. To find out if a box is original or not, open the lid halfway and close the box. The papier-mâché produces a soft, muffled sound when closed. If the lid of the box closes with a loud wooden click, it’s probably not made of papier-mâché, but some cheap cardboard-based substitute.

Another fake Russian lacquer art box giveaway may be due to the lack of knowledge of painting technique on the part of untrained artists. Multiple layers of a painting create greater depth in the original work and almost create the impression of a 3D image. Each layer of paint is covered with more layers of lacquer and this technique is so sophisticated that it can take years to learn and many more to master.

An artist often pays attention to minute details. Gold leaf ornamentation on Russian lacquer boxes, for example, is highly geometric and boasts a superior sense of construction, which would not be the case with forgeries and imitations.