This lacquered wooden powder box was donated to the museum by Valentina Chekhova, the widow of Anton Chekhov’s nephew Sergey. It belonged to the writer’s family in the 20th century. Such powder boxes were usually kept on the dressing table.

Tabletop powder boxes were made of glass, crystal, wood, silver, or brass. Unlike compacts, such powder boxes had no mirror and often no powder puff. The design of this powder box is minimalistic. It is not decorated with painting, branding, or ornaments. It might have been a handmade present.

Until the 20th century, a powder box was a status symbol: face powder was used only by women of high society, who sought to maintain a pale complexion as a sign of nobility. Powder helped them look younger and better in the uneven light of the candelabra. It was also often used by actors for theatrical makeup.

There are two main types of face powder — vegetable and mineral. The former appeared much earlier, it was made of finely ground wheat and rice flour. The pleasant scent was achieved with the help of violet root, cloves, and fragrant oils. A few centuries ago, women used face powder sparingly and wore it without washing their faces for weeks on end.

From Anton Chekhov’s 1883 short story “At the Barber’s”,

In the Soviet Union, there was a national standard for manufacturing cosmetic powder. Rice powder was considered the best because it mattified the skin. Nowadays, face powder is made of talc and zinc oxide and comes in various forms, such as loose, pressed, and liquid powder, and even powder balls.