Palekh vintage brooch

Miniature worlds painted by light and time.

Palekh, a small town in Russia’s Ivanovo Oblast, has long been known as a historic center of icon painting. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, religious iconography was banned, and in 1923 the artisans of Palekh began painting fairy tales, legends, and historical scenes on small lacquered boxes, preserving and evolving their traditional techniques.

Palekh lacquer art is characterized by the use of water-based pigments (such as egg tempera or gouache) on a typically black background, enhanced with intricate gold outlines. The compositions focus on essential figures and scenes from real life, literature, folklore, bylinas (epic poems), and songs. Painted with vivid local colors, these miniature works display delicate, smooth detailing, rich golden shading, and flat, precisely outlined forms that often fill the entire surface.

The lettering itself often carries a poetic charm, while the elongated proportions of the figures, along with the stylized landscapes and architectural elements, reflect the deep influence of traditional Russian religious icon painting.

One remarkable feature of Palekh art is the use of finely detailed miniatures painted with gold dissolved in aqua regia, forming ornate, shimmering patterns.
And perhaps most special of all — Palekh masters never create duplicates.
Every piece is entirely one-of-a-kind, a singular work of art. ✨✨✨