Lacquered Box

Russian? They are usually signed but no signature found here. Maybe if someone can figure what tale the image is from?

 

Based on Aesop fable.
The man, the boy, and the donkey.
Don’t know what country.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_miller,_his_son_and_the_donkey
Prior history of the story, before Aesop.

 

It is a Persian lacquer box. The boy is a girl.
Probably based on a Persian story.

 

I’d think the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Russian lacquered boxes are usually(but not always) hinged and also usually with flat bottoms but not footed. And they would depict scenes from more traditional folk tales.
As to being Persian, I find the decoration and the drawing style not quite common for the region.
In my opinion the box was made in some of the former Russian republics from the Asian region, either during USSR times or after they went independent. Uzbekistan maybe?
It’s hard to pin the exact story the scene is depicting. Could be as suggested based onthe Aesob fable, or maybe from 1001 nights or tales about Nasreddin Hodja or other folk story.

 

You could be right. Uzbekistan has had a strong Persian influence for thousands of years and was at one time part of the Persian empire. The Uzbek lacquer I know is mostly of the Islamic and floral type, but they do make Persian style scenes with people. Though Persian in style, the painting sometimes has that lighter touch, which your box also has:

http://www.uzbekalive.com/ikat-deco...other-miniature-hand-painted-jewelry-box.html

This is the usual Uzbek style, very much like Persian, but more colourful: