Featured Translate signature on Russian lacquer boxes?

Signatures are tiny and pics are best I could do. Any help is appreciated.


Second box:




This last one is worn a bit so maybe not possible to see.

 

vert nice.........1st one's charming..

 

I think they're both GREAT!!!! Here's an enlargement on the more worn mark on the second one! Might help whoever reads Russian.....

 

And the upper mark from the Round image...........couldn't help it's still blurry!

 

First one: Kholui (village), Stepanov (artist's surname)
Second one: "In the forest", Mstera (village).

 

And the title of the first one is "Snow Maiden." ("Снегурочка") -- or so Google translate tells me.

 

Thanks @Figtree3, somehow, I didn't notice the title, on the white background

 

These are both lovely!

 

Thank you much!

 

I like to help when I can, @April07 -- I knew you must have missed it, since your replies are always very complete.

 

Ooh me next!!!! I have like ten of these and was about to list some.

 

Any chance you’re can take a stab at these two. These were my least favorite of my bunch. Figured I would let them go first but would love some more info first if possible.

 

I can make out almost nothing of the writing on the first one, due to glare and angle.

The second one says, from left to right: Palekh (the city where it was made); "Falcon Hunting" (title); and then the artist's name, either Kislin or Kislik surname followed by a first initial that I can't read.

Since you have a lot of these I'd like to recommend using a Russian keyboard (such as https://russian.typeit.org/ ) to type the letters you see, and then using Google translate or some other online translator to interpret. These boxes generally have three sections of writing. On the left is the city where made, in the middle in quotation marks is the title of the image, and on the right is the name of the person who painted the box. Normally they are factory employees, but not always. Some boxes have only one or two of the components mentioned. Some have none. And sometimes the three sections of writing are in a different order than what I mentioned above.

We can still try to interpret for you. @April07 is originally from Ukraine and so learned Russian long ago, and it is more native to her. I'm just an American native English speaker who took Russian in college. There are other native speakers here, but they come and go.

 

The first one says "The song about the merchant..." and I assume the last word that is not readable is "Kalashnikov". This must be based on a poem of Mikhail Lermontov.

 

The secod one - completely agree with @Figtree3 in the translation. I found this box that lists Kislin as author. Unfirtunately, the signature is nor visible there. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.souvenirdvor.ru/amp/product/shkatulka-troyka-kholuy-136/ The initial looks to me like V.

 

Thanks for the advice and the translation!!! I recall none of the French I took in College. You obviously have a good memory or have stayed in practice. The first one is actually equally hard to see in person. Even under a loupe it’s hard to make out.

 

I was always good at languages, and loved studying Russian. Was always better at reading it and understanding spoken Russian than I was at speaking it myself. That was different from my experience in studying Italian for several semesters. I was more proficient at speaking Italian than reading it. I guess it was just the focus of the instruction and curriculum. Anyway, my career has been as an academic librarian working at universities mostly, and I had some chances to use the Russian there, at least minimally. Really, I seek out and welcome any chance I get, even now.

 

What an interesting career that must be! Can’t think of too many cooler offices! I’m not bad at learning words so I can get the general idea of writing in Spanish and make out a tiny bit of writing in French. Speaking it and understanding people speaking fast is another story for me. Great that you have some opportunities to use it at a university!