Artistic glass is a significant and worthy part of the national cultural heritage of Russia. This is one of the most ancient and widespread types of domestic arts and crafts, as well as one of the first and leading branches of the Russian art industry for almost four centuries now. Glass has been known in Eastern Europe since ancient times. Here, to the northern shores of the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus - the Hospitable Sea), they brought a variety of glass products created by the masters of Alexandria, the Eastern Mediterranean and northern Italy. Archaeological excavations carried out by Russian scientists in the pre-revolutionary and Soviet time in the Black Sea ancient Greek colonial cities - Panticapaeum (Kerch), Nymphaeum, Chersonese, Olbia, Feodosia, Gorkippia (Anapa) and other cities, gave science a huge number of material monuments: balsams, dishes, bowls, jugs and other glass vessels dating from period VI -V centuries BC e. - I-II centuries. n. e. Local glass production appears here a little later than the middle of the 2nd century, which is confirmed by the presence of glass workshops in the settlement of Alma Kermen near Bakhchisarai, although, apparently, Roman craftsmen worked here (Shchapova, 1983. P. 135, 140). From the 10th century from Byzantium to Old Russian the state received large quantities of multi-colored smalts, and already at the end of the 10th century in Kyiv, in connection with the construction of the Tithesthe church, decorated with mosaics, there are local glass workshops. Moreover, it is interesting that the ancient Russian glasses in terms of chemical composition and manufacturing technique, despite their kinship with Byzantine ones, still differ from them. That is, at the beginning of the 11th century, when “preservation of the secret of glass was the main feature in the policy of the Byzantines in relation to their Kievan colleagues,” local glass production with its own recipe and melting technology already existed in Kievan Rus. Thus, addition in Russia independent school glassmaking, and specifically in the Kiev region, was due, firstly, to the presence of a rich raw material base here, secondly, the existence of local glass recipes, and, finally, the mutual influence of their own practical experience and the experience of Byzantine masters.
In the 12th century, ancient Russian glass The division, the center of which was Kyiv, actively spread to other East Slavic regions, where it occupied a prominent place. Initially, it was the production of smalts of an extremely rich color palette, including “golden”, to decorate with mosaics erected monumental Christian churches in Kyiv, Novgorod, Polotsk, Chernigov and other cities. The production of "end" glass was also established, which gradually replaced mica windows in rich houses. Although even later, in the 17th century, in the Moscow royal palaces in Kolomenskoye and Izmailovo, along with glass "ends", mica continued to be preserved.
Another important part of the Old Russian glass production was the manufacture of hand-blown glassware by the craftsmen of Kyiv, which testifies to the high level of glassmaking of that time. In addition, in the XI-XIII centuries in many ancient Russian cities - Kyiv, Novgorod, Smolensk, Staraya Ryazan, Polotsk, Chernigov and other places - the manufacture of various women's jewelry - multi-colored beads, bracelets, temporal rings and rings, which were successfully competed with imported beads and beads, which existed here since the 8th-9th centuries. In this regard, the testimony of an Arab traveler of the late 10th century is interesting that imported beads were extremely expensive and fortunes were given for it. Buying these necklaces for their wives, "husbands went bankrupt, paying from 15 to 20 kopecks in silver for each bead."
Studies by Russian scientists prove that even a century before the invasion of Batu, the development of Russian crafts, including glassmaking, reached a high level. As you know, Kievan Rus by this time was a powerful state, the princes of which were related to many royal courts of Europe. Foreigners called it "the country of cities, crafts and arts." However, the heavy yoke of the Golden Horde, the brutal destruction of cities, the hijacking of masters for several centuries interrupted such a successful economic development ancient Russian state. Only in the 15th century, forgotten crafts, including glassmaking, gradually begin to revive. In the former places - in the wooded regions of the Chernihiv region - the activity of glass workshops is resumed, in which, as in Europe, a variety of hand-blown household utensils are made. From here, from the "Cherkasy" lands, from small craft workshops during the 15th - early 17th centuries, a wide range of ordinary, ordinary glass of "simple matter", as it was called, "green" and "blue WATER" was exported. They take him to the new center of Russia - to the Muscovite state, as well as to Veliky Novgorod, Smolensk and other Russian cities.
Over time, the activities of small Cherkassy artisan guts, although numerous, could not satisfy the growing demand for glass products of the Muscovite state, which was actively expanding trade relations with Western Europe. At the beginning of the 17th century, through the Hanseatic trade union, the port of Arkhangelsk and Veliky Novgorod began to receive fabulously expensive "Vinitsa" glass with colored filigree, which had already conquered all of Europe; merchants brought outlandish mirrors, which grooms willingly gave to brides as a wedding gift. A large number of glass beads arrived, made not without the influence of Venetian glassmakers. Excavations carried out in last years on the territory of Moscow, testify to the widespread existence of glass luxury items. Glassware at the beginning of the 17th century was used at the royal court, in royal pharmacies and in state drinking establishments - “kruzhny yards” (“circles”) for “placement of trial and exemplary wine”.
In the 17th century, with the strengthening of the Muscovite state, glassmaking entered a new production stage. Increasing demand for a variety of glass - household and luxury - lead to the need to create their own glass production. As a result, already in the first half of the 17th century, its own glass production appeared near Moscow - “the first glass factories were started. In 1634, with the permission of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich near Moscow, in the village of Dukhanino, Dmitrovsky district, the Swede E. Koyet began the construction of the first Russian glass factory. The plant was opened in 1639 and produced apothecary utensils and window glass. Later, in 1668, in the village of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Izmailovo, near Moscow, by his decree, a now state-owned factory was started up, also of a manufactory type, but larger and closer to the capital, producing products "about the everyday life of the great sovereign." And indeed, the plant lived up to its purpose, releasing a huge assortment of household utensils for the king and his entourage. These products were richly decorated, in accordance with the new European influences - gilding, polishing and engraving.
Venetian glassmaking, which created a whole trend in Europe in the 17th century - Facon de Venise, was also reflected in the products of the “figurative business of the Izmailovsky plant. The first two decades in Izmailovo worked foreign "glass" masters, called "Vinitsa", who were immigrants from the Czech Republic, Germany, Holland and the Baltic countries. It was they who transferred their experience and skills, which had developed under the influence of Venetian glassmaking, to Russian soil. So, the name of the figure master "of the Dutchman Indrik Lerin is known, who worked at the Izmailovsky plant practically from its foundation to the transfer to the Apothecary Department and whose activities are associated with a number of "cracker" cups.
Products of "figurative business" - "glasses long", in a sazhen" and "amusing cups" - among the huge variety of products of the Izmailovsky plant stood out especially. These products include the rarest goblets with "secrets" - a system of hidden pipes, which made it possible to unexpectedly pour a fountain on a person drinking at that moment. Such goblets were decorated with rich plastic decor: stucco and blown figures of birds, horses, deer, rams, various flowers and leaves, which brings them closer to products Venetian masters. Similar products with "secrets", common in Europe as early as the 17th century under the influence of Venice, also came to the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in Russia, where all kinds of "joking" fun were extremely loved and widespread.
Speaking about the figured glass of the Izmailovsky plant, it should be noted that Venetian glassmaking, which gave impetus to the development in Europe of a whole direction in the "Venetian style", the so-called faconde Venise with its developed plastic system of shaping, it was extremely in tune with the traditions of Russian folk plastic art of the 16th-17th centuries.
The Izmailovsky plant played a huge role in the development of Russian artistic glassmaking in the 17th century and had a guiding influence on the subsequent course of its development. The craftsmen of the Izmailovsky and state-owned Vorobyevsky factories, who later worked in Yamburg and Kyiv (at the glass factory founded there in 1720 by decree of Peter I), transferred to new places the secrets of glass craftsmanship that they had developed at the "sovereign" factory for 30-40 years.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the St. Petersburg region became the center of glass production, where the newly rebuilt capital consumed a huge amount of glass. But the transfer of glass production to a new location was not just a geographical movement. In the general process of the programmatic “Europeanization” of Russia during the time of Peter the Great, one can also speak of the development of a new stage in Russian artistic glassmaking: a reorientation from Venetian glassmaking to Central European glassmaking. First of all, this was expressed in the formation of a Russian school of engraving, akin to European, in particular Bohemian. The beginning of this process was laid back in Izmailovo, then at the Yamburg factories of A. Menshikov, and in the middle of the 18th century it reached its peak at the St. Petersburg factory.
In the next century and a half - until the beginning of the 20th century - the products of the Imperial Glass Factory, executed according to the designs of the largest architects and the hands of the best Russian masters, adorned the interiors of numerous metropolitan palaces and country residences of members of the imperial family and the highest aristocracy, striking with their splendor and perfection. The Imperial Glass Factory, which has become a leading enterprise and a kind of artistic laboratory for private enterprises, was on a par with the largest factories in Europe, bringing glory to Russian glassmaking.
The great Mikhailo Lomonosov made an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian artistic glassmaking. In the 40s of the XVIII century, as a result of numerous experiments in the laboratories of the Academy of Sciences, he developed an extensive recipe for colored glass. By permission of the Senate, M. Lomonosov received an interest-free loan of 4,000 rubles for five years and in 1754 built a glass factory, where "for the benefit and glory of the Russian Empire" he set up the production of colored glass invented by him - one of the most complex types glass products. The plant produced a variety of colored products, smalts, and also developed a method for manufacturing "haberdashery" - beads and glass beads, a fashionable product that was not previously produced in Russia and came from abroad "at a cost of many thousands."
As for private glass production, since the 18th century, thanks to the protectionist policy of Peter I and his successors, who provided benefits to private manufacturers and protected them from foreign competition by increasing customs import duties and even banning the import of imported glass goods (since 1800), etc. ., the number of new factories increased rapidly. At the same time, in order to preserve forests in which “extreme need is”, government decrees of 1744, 1759, 1762 prohibited the construction of glass (as well as iron and wine) factories within a radius of 200 miles from Moscow and not closer than Yamburgsky district from St. Petersburg, and by decree of the Senate in 1754, the previously built factories were completely subject to destruction. Nevertheless, despite such contradictory measures, by the beginning of the 19th century there were more than fifty glass factories, and in the first quarter of the century, according to the statement of 1814, there were already 146 glass factories. - 14, Volyn and Chernigov - 11 each, Smolensk - 9, Kyiv, Oryol and Ryazan - 8 each, Kaluga - 3, etc. These were mainly factories built by representatives of the noble classes and merchants on their estates. Merchants Maltsevs are known among the owners of factories. The Nemchinovs and the Bolotins, the noblemen Bakhmetevs and Orlovs Olsufevs and Poltoratskys, the Golitsyns and Yusupovs Panshin, the Menshikovs, the Nebolsins and others.
By the middle of the 19th century, with the development of capitalist relations, private business in the production of glass became more active, expanding the geography of its distribution not only in the European part of the empire (albeit mainly) but also in remote Siberian and Asian regions, amounting to 185 factories according to the statistics of 1838, 1874 year - more than 200. By the beginning of the First World War, the number of glass enterprises is already approaching four hundred. Thus, from the second half of XIX For centuries, Russia has become a major glass-producing country, providing glass products not only to the domestic market, but also to sales abroad.
And although not all of the numerous Russian glass factories of the 18th - early 20th centuries produced household and decorative glass, nevertheless, the products of these enterprises played a role essential role in the formation of the artistic level of domestic glassmaking in general. Imperial Glassworks and leading private enterprises were permanent members All-Russian and international art and industrial exhibitions of the 19th - early 20th centuries, where they invariably received the highest awards.
The turn of the XIX - XX centuries takes place in Europe under the sign of a new style, which in different countries ah received various names: Art Nouveau - in France, Art Nouveau - in Germany, Secession - in Austria, Liberty - in Italy, Art Nouveau - in Russia. Everywhere the works of this style were distinguished by an innovative approach to form, interest in wildlife, and an appeal to new production technologies. Such a material as glass, with its transparency and fluid plasticity, with its inexhaustible palette of shades and textures, turned out to be surprisingly in tune with the Art Nouveau style and became one of the symbols of the new style. One of the main aesthetic ideas Art Nouveau - to make high art more accessible, that is, to find an alternative to the mass mechanized production of household items. This artistic program has received different incarnations in different countries.
Antique glass by René Lalique
occupies a special place in modern art. Rene Lalique(1860 - 1945). This artist became famous primarily as a jeweler, but glass played an important role in his work. He used it in his unrivaled jewelry, often ditching gemstones in favor of glass. In addition, René Lalique made lighting fixtures, vases, sculptures, perfume bottles and even car decorations. His works made of colorless and colored glass, frosted and transparent, sometimes using colored enamels, were distinguished by both monumentality and lightness, smoothness and originality of forms, and were no less popular than his jewelry.
Vase with the image of ivy. Rene Lalique. 1912
Source: http://www.kreml.ru/exhibitions/moscow-kremlin-exhibitions/iskusstvo-rene-lalika/
Glass Art Nouveau Emil Galle
The key figure for glassmaking in the Art Nouveau era was Emile Galle(1846 - 1904). His work refracted the traditions of European and Oriental art, giving rise to a completely new unique style, which combined deep symbolism, close attention to nature, an endless variety of techniques, amazing freedom and sophistication of form. Emile Galle was born in Nancy, small town in Lorraine, in the family of an entrepreneur who was engaged in trade and production of glass and faience. Emile Galle's career began with a family business. Later he collaborated with the factory "Burgun, Schwerer andToᵒ» in Meisenthal. Already in 1867, Galle created an art studio, and in 1894 he headed his own glass production in Nancy. If in early period Since Galle's creative work was mainly sketches of dishes made of transparent colorless glass with engraving or painting, then in his own atelier he begins a series of technological experiments. As a result, many new techniques were invented and patented, ancient technologies were revived, and an unprecedentedly diverse palette of colored glass shades was created. In 1882, Emile Gallé starts the production of laminated glass, which has become one of the symbols of Art Nouveau. Engraving was the most important element of the decoration of multi-layer products, which could be carried out mechanically (engraving with a wheel) or chemically (etching). Glass became the pinnacle of Halle's creativity "cameo" (cameo glass) - laminated glass, on which the image was applied using sequential layer-by-layer etching and carving using various tools. As a rule, flowers and plants (orchids, lilies, chrysanthemums, thistles, ferns) were depicted on vases using this technique, but there are also images of insects, marine life and other images borrowed from nature. The decorative decoration of such works has always had a symbolic and philosophical connotation. Halle even creates a new genre that combines glass and poetry: the so-called "talking glass" ”, where lines from poems by Baudelaire, Maeterlinck, Hugo were woven into the ornamentation of the vase.
Vase with the image of a magnolia flower. Halle manufactory 1900 Laminated glass, etched. GMZ Pavlovsk
Etching was also used to treat the entire surface of the glass. Exposure to various concentrations of acid in a solution could replace mechanical polishing, give a matting effect, or "frosty glass" (glass as if covered with a layer of frost). Acid etching made it possible to achieve greater smoothness of lines and softer outlines compared to mechanical engraving. Etching also made it possible to create circulation products, and in the 1890s Halle began mass production of laminated glass at his own enterprise. Halle's serial glass was named galle standard . Halle's unique invention was the technique glass marquetry (fr.marqueterie de verre- set of glass on glass), by analogy with the technique that has long been used to decorate furniture. Pieces of glass of various colors were placed on the walls of the vessel in hot form. Another technique patented by Halle is patination technique when the dust is different chemical composition applied to the glass surface between layers, thus achieving unusual color effects and refined gradations.
Vase with the image of cyclamen. Halle manufactory. Late 1890s Laminated glass, etching, marquetry on glass technique. State Museum ceramics and the Kuskovo Estate.
Source:Galle lines. European and Russian colored end laminated glassXIX- startXXcentury in the collections of Russian museums. Moscow 2013.
The main feature of Emile Galle's antique glass is the highest quality and virtuosity of execution, each of his works is an unsurpassed masterpiece. There are also a number of details that help determine if an antique Galle glass is genuine. Such details include a polished bottom, on which all the numerous layers of colored glass are visible. Undoubtedly, important role when attributing, the signature (signature) of Emile Galle also plays. He signed his works in the technique of engraving or etching, but the signature changed both during the life of the artist and after his death (serial production of Galle vases continued its work until the 1930s). Currently, the rights to the Galle brand are owned by the Coman design plant located in Romania. Their products are of high quality and artistic value, but are hardly of interest to the collector of antique glass. In the labeling of these products, next to the name "Galle" there is the word "tip".
Vase with anemones. Emile Gallé, 1900 Laminated glass, marquetry on glass technique, engraved. State Hermitage.
Source: Halle Lines. European and Russian colored laminated glass of the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the collections of Russian museums. Moscow 2013.
Followers, Seekers, Experimenters
The unique work of Emile Galle gave rise to many followers, forming the Nancy school, which became the leader for the entire modern era. The first followers of Halle were the masters of the factory in Meisenthal, with whom the artist collaborated for a long time - Desiree Christian and Eugene Kremer. An important place in the art of that period was occupied by firm "Legra and Kᵒ". hallmark Legr's glass was widely used, along with engraving and etching, painting with enamels and gold, as well as the extraordinary brightness and variety of shades of glass masses. Undoubtedly, one of the recognized leaders of artistic glassmaking of that time was firm of the Dom brothers (Auguste Dom and Antonin Dom). Among artistic techniques used in their works, the following techniques are especially worth noting: technique colored crumbs , in which glass chips of various colors were applied to the product in hot form; technique pat de ver (fr.pâte-de-verre - glass paste), in which details were created for decorating multilayer vases, as well as a widely used technique martel (fr.martele - forged), that is, an imitation of a forged texture on glass.
Vase with anemones. Manufactory of the Dom brothers, 1910 Laminated glass, etching. GMZ Pavlovsk.
Source: Halle Lines. European and Russian colored laminated glass of the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the collections of Russian museums. Moscow 2013
The influence of Emile Galle and the Nancy school was so great that it was not limited to France. Examples might be vintage glass by Ludwig Moser & Sons in the Czech Republic, and firm "Costa" in Sweden, in which the features of Halle's creativity and the ideas of modernity were refracted in a peculiar way. Russian glass factories were no exception, and they also responded to new trends in European art.
Russian glass Modern
AT late XIX century Imperial Glass Factory (ISZ) experienced not better times, and was merged with the Imperial Porcelain Factory to reduce costs. Nevertheless, ISZ still remained one of the largest glass productions in Russia and produced the highest class products. Shortly after the famous world exhibition 1889 in Paris, where Émile Galle first demonstrated his laminated glass vases, ISZ also begins to create similar works.
Vase. Imperial Porcelain and Glass factories. 1897 Colored glass, crackle technique.
Source:T. A. Malinina. Imperial glass factory.XVIII- StartXXcentury. St. Petersburg: 2009.
In addition, at the turn of the century, ISZ produced thick-walled colored glass vases decorated using techniques such as millefiori (ital.millefiori- a thousand flowers) in which many glass tubes of various colors were cut across and fused into the thickness of the vessel in the form of thin plates, crackle (fr.craqueler- covered with cracks- glass with cracks on the surface, as well as glass with the inclusion of metallic spangles in the mass.
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Vase with the image of a snake in the thickets of clover. Imperial Porcelain and Glass factories. According to the drawing by K. Krasovsky. 1897 Two-layer glass, carving, engraving.
In the 17th century, the intensive development of crafts led to the emergence of the first manufactories. The growth of commodity production contributed to the revival of trade, linking previously isolated economic regions into a system of a single all-Russian market. The reunification of Russia with Ukraine and Belarus was an event of great political significance. It contributed to the expansion of ties between Muscovite Rus and the countries of Europe.
In the Russian life of the 17th century, the need for a new hygienic and beautiful material was already felt. The first who took up the production of glass in Russia was a cannon maker, a Swede, Julius Koyet, who arrived in Moscow on March 2, 1630. In 1632, he invited the experienced "glass" craftsman Paul Kunkel, who had previously "started" a glass factory in Sweden, to cooperate. He helped to choose a place for the future plant, and in 1634 Koyet received a charter to "establish" a glass factory in the village of Dukhanino, Dmitrovsky district (not far from Moscow). The production developed in difficult financial conditions, changed quite a few owners, and was finally closed in 1760, when the craftsmen "by their own petition" and the decision of the Manufactory-Collegium were assigned to Akim Maltsov's Gusevsky plant.
The fate of another private glass factory built by the Swede Ivan (Johann) von Sveden in the Ivanovo volost of the Kashirsky district was unsuccessful. In 1666, he brought from overseas, among other specialists, "crystal and Vinitsa glassware craftsmen." But in 1668, the owner died without completing the construction of the "Vinitsa glassware factory", although in 1697 its buildings still existed.
An outstanding role in the history of Russian artistic glassmaking was played by the plant, founded in 1668 on the initiative of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the village of Izmailovo near Moscow (now the territory of Moscow). It was here that Russian was born art glass, and a school of Russian glassmaking was created. In this complex process, along with Russian and Ukrainian masters, foreign specialists also took part. Many of them have lived in Russia almost all their lives and found a second home here. The plant was built in 1668 by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, was under the control of the Secret Order, then the order of the Great Court, and in 1710 was transferred to the Aptekarsky Order and closed soon after. This enterprise produced “amusing and figured glass about the use of the great sovereign”, “crystal” (i.e., very clear colorless glass) dishes with engraving and gilding, simple products made of colorless and green glass, and after 1710 - pharmaceutical dishes .
Information about another Russian glass factory of the 17th century, located in the village of Voskresensky, Chernogolovskaya volost, is extremely scarce. Neither the dates of its existence nor the nature of production are known. Data about him refer only to 1687, when he was already operating and his products were sold at the Moscow Gostiny Dvor. Among the products of the plant were glasses, brothers, lamps. Apparently, it was a kind of branch of the Izmailovsky plant, since their products are listed in one inventory of the village of Izmailovo.
Thus, at the end of the 17th century, there were three glass factories near Moscow, which, despite their modest size, could not provide the whole country with glass.
In 1691, the construction of another state-owned glass factory was undertaken. Its device was entrusted to the “trading man of the living room of a hundred” Yakov Romanov, who built the premises for the plant at the Tainitsky Gates in Moscow. But this attempt ended in complete failure, since Romanov was unable to find craftsmen and establish production.
After that, the Moscow administration started the construction of a new mirror factory, Vorobyevsky, inviting "commissar" Brockhausen from Berlin for this purpose. He arrived in Moscow in 1705, along with six French "mirror" masters hired by him, and possibly brought some of the equipment with him. In 1706, the plant was already operating, albeit with interruptions. Visiting craftsmen, apparently, did not immediately adapt to local raw materials. The dimensions of the mirrors, which are quite significant for the 18th century, are unusual: some of them reached four arshins in length and two in width; many were in glass frames. The end of the activity of this plant was very instructive. In 1710, it was leased to Willim Leid under the patronage of A.D. Menshikov. In 1712, Leid received a large order for the execution of "large, medium and smaller hands of bells and 330 carafins" for a total of 126 rubles. However, the order was partially fulfilled, and during the investigation it turned out that the factory's tools were hidden in the German Quarter in the yard of the teacher Andrey Martynov. These tools and the materials remaining at the plant were sent to St. Petersburg on 10 carts, accompanied by dragoons.
From 1706 to 1718, 9 small enterprises were built in the Trubchevsky, Sevsky and Karachevsky counties (now the Bryansk region). Produced here "slo simple with bubbles" and "white and simple slo".
The 18th century is a time of active development of Russian glassmaking. New production centers are being formed, which retained their leading position throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
I. Petersburg
At the beginning of the XVIII century, the formation of the St. Petersburg center of glassmaking begins, with which the magnificent flowering of the Russian school of engraved glass is associated.
Yamburg and Zhabinsky plants.
Initially, factories were opened in the city of Yamburg and in the village of Zhabine, Yamburg district. It was possible to find a message that in 1705 master Sheper, together with master Kifater, examined “pleasant places to blow glass near the village of Syabino, 12 versts below Yamburkh.” They recognized the place as very suitable, and master Kifater drew up a plant project. Menshikov was mentioned in 1717 as the property of A.D. Menshikov, who thought to give them at the mercy of "eager people". Both plants were owned by Menshikov, since among the huge land grants in Ingermanland, he was given the city of Yamburg and its environs. After Opals A. D. Menshikov, the enterprise went to the state treasury. The Yamburg plant was larger than the Zhabinsky and more perfect in organization of production. It produced mirror and window glass, as well as "crystal dishes" with polishing and engraving, which accounted for almost a third of all products. From 1713 For a year, the foreign master Johann Mennart was engaged in the engraving of dishes, who left his craft in 1723 due to an eye disease. Russian engravers - apprentices Dementy Voilokov and Vasily Pivovarov, who eventually became outstanding masters. The Yamburg factories mainly served the palace economy, supplying window panes, mirrors and "crystal" dishes for the royal residences under construction. Some of the products were sold at the factories themselves and in the palace shop. At the end of 1730, the demand for mirrors and glass declined. This is explained by the fact that Emperor Peter II temporarily transferred the royal residence to Moscow (1727-1730). In 1730, the factories were leased to the English merchant Willim Elmsel, who in 1733-1735 transferred equipment and craftsmen to his own factories in St. Petersburg and on the Lava River.
Petersburg glass factory
The history of the St. Petersburg State Factory, which was the leader of Russian glassmaking throughout the 18th century, began somewhat unusually. For the first time about its existence on the Fontanka River, almost in the center of St. Petersburg, they learned in 1738, when its founder V. Elmzel died. It also turned out that the tools and craftsmen of the Yamburg factory were transferred here. Judging by the inventories, it was not a glass factory proper, but rather a workshop, where they only cut, polished and engraved glass products, but they also blown glass at the Lavinsky factories. After both plants were transferred to the treasury, Petersburg gradually becomes a plant in the full sense of the word. Dishes were blown on it, mirror glasses were poured and they were immediately polished and engraved. Part of the production was carried out by order of the royal court, the other went on sale. They traded glass in a shop on Nevsky Prospekt, as well as directly at the factory.
In 1774, the plant itself was transferred to the village of Nazya, Shlisselburg district, and a workshop was left in St. Petersburg for “grinding dishes and cutting coats of arms and monograms on it.” But even in 1780 this decision was not implemented. Thus, the history of the St. Petersburg plant shows that the widespread practice in Europe of separating the production of tableware and its cold processing, despite its obvious benefits, did not take shape in Russia.
Quite a lot of products of the Petersburg factory have been preserved. Basically, these are carved goblets, glasses, glasses, shtofs, teapots. They clearly testify to the flourishing of the engraving art at that time. The carvers of the plant could engrave on glass not only coats of arms and monograms. They did an excellent job with complex rocaille ornaments, architectural landscapes, portraits and allegorical compositions, gallant and pastoral scenes. Each of the engravers had their favorite themes and characteristic methods of work. From all this, a unique image of the art glass of the St. Petersburg plant is formed. The presence of foreign carvers at the factory was inevitably reflected in the nature of the carved decor, in many respects close to Bohemian, Silesian and partly Saxon. This "clash" of different schools also gave the glass of the St. Petersburg factory its originality.
In 1777, by decree of Catherine II, the state-owned factories in the village of Nazia (former Petersburg) were given “for particular maintenance to the illustrious prince” G.A. Potemkin, who turned out to be a generous and attentive host. The prince transferred the plant to the lands of the monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky in the village of Ozerki, which is four miles from St. Petersburg. After the death of G.A. Potemkin in 1792, the plant was again taken over by the treasury and became known as the Imperial. It has always remained the largest and most equipped glass production in Russia, a true "trendsetter of glass fashion".
Russian glass
R In the early spring of 1630, during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich, the Swede Julius Koyet arrived in Moscow. He was supposed to teach Russian craftsmen how to cast cannons. The cannon master was well received. The king immediately granted a silver ladle weighing two pounds, "digged velvet", "good taffeta", forty sables and a horse with a saddle and a bridle. Coyet liked this reception, and he decided to stay in Russia altogether. It turned out that he also knows the glass craft well. Koyet undertook to build a glass factory in Russia.
In those days, we almost did not know the glass. Even in royal palace the windows were mica. They ate from copper or pewter utensils. The poor managed with wooden bowls. Coyet's suggestion came in handy.
A suitable place was found in the Moscow district, not far from Voskresensk. Here they built a factory - several pine huts with melting furnaces and pipes. In 1635, the plant began to produce pharmaceutical glassware: flasks, jars, retorts, bottles. Such dishes were very expensive. For the price paid for the great glass jar, you could buy a calf.
Under Alexei Mikhailovich, a second plant was built - in the village of Izmailovo, near Moscow. It was already a state, state-owned plant. He made not apothecary utensils, but suleys (bottles and decanters), pewters (jugs), stavets (ladles), mugs, brothers (ladles for wine), glasses, glasses, lamps and flycatchers. The pride of the Izmailovsky plant was the fathom (two-meter) glass cast by him. The miracle glass was cunningly decorated with glass threads; she could hold two buckets of wine.
Under Peter I and Elizabeth, several more glass factories were built. Russian glassblowers have already appeared. Foreigners were reluctant to share their experience with them, tried not to reveal their secrets to them. Fortunately, there were inventors among the Russians who not only independently discovered the ancient secrets of glassmaking, but also improved them.
The first of these inventors was M.V. Lomonosov. Everyone knows that Lomonosov wrote poems about glass (excerpts from the poem "Letter on the benefits of glass"):
... I sing praise before you in delight,
Not expensive stones, not gold, but glass ...
Dear child, beautiful glass.
Seeing the mortals, oh how they marveled at him!
Art was trying to find something like that.
And skill was successful in this matter:
Has exceeded the nature by the zeal.
That made life in the world happy for us:
From pure glass we drink wine and beer ...
Medicines that are stored and made up in glass;
In glass alone they are harmless...
In the viewing tubes the glass shows us
Koliko gave space to the heavens.
Just a lot of Suns shining in them,
How many motionless stars the night shows us clearly ...
Far to the end of the glass worthy of praise,
For which a whole year would hardly have gotten me ...
However, not everyone knows that Lomonosov himself brewed glass. He was not only a great physicist, chemist, geologist, mineralogist, astronomer, philosopher, historian, but also a wonderful glassmaker. In the first Russian chemical laboratory, Lomonosov produced more than 4,000 experimental glasses. These works formed the basis of factory methods for producing colored glasses.
O Once, at Count Shuvalov's, Lomonosov saw a mosaic portrait brought from Italy. He was delighted with a wonderful picture made up of multi-colored glass cubes. Is it really impossible to do the same wonderful things here in Russia? Lomonosov decided to take up the mosaic himself.
He had to start all over again, as if no one had done mosaics before him. Recipes for coloring glass were then kept secret, few craftsmen knew them abroad, and no one in Russia knew. In books one could read only about the most simple and well-known things. And about how to cook differently colored glass how to make cubes, how to fix them - all this was not said in the books. Lomonosov spent almost three years uncovering these secrets. He patiently made experiments, writing them down in a laboratory journal. During this time, he happened to melt glass more than two thousand times. Finally all the secrets were revealed. It could be taken for a mosaic.
Lomonosov's first mosaic was an icon made from 4,000 glass cubes. He then made mosaic portraits of Elizabeth and Catherine II. After that, he took up a huge - 42 square meters - mosaic painting "Poltava battle", which they wanted to decorate the wall of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Such a large mosaic required a huge set of glass cubes of all colors. After all, the more shades at the disposal of the artist, the better picture he can create. Suffice it to say that, for example, in the Vatican mosaic workshop of the Pope, cubes of twenty-eight thousand various shades. One only green color has four thousand tones - from salad to dense green, almost black. Need a lot keen eye to choose the most suitable from all these shades. A person unaccustomed to such work will not even notice the difference between neighboring shades: it is so elusive. And the master will notice. And from the many plates with glass cubes standing in front of him, he will choose the right one. Mosaic paintings are made for several years. They demand from the artist extraordinary thoroughness, endless patience.
Lomonosov worked on the Poltava Battle for almost five years and finished it shortly before his death. And then the picture suffered a sad fate. They didn't take her to the cathedral. A huge painting is missing.
More than 150 years have passed. The October Revolution took place. And then one day, while putting the cellars of the Academy of Sciences in order, the workers stumbled upon some large, very heavy boxes. There were many. One of them was opened - it contained a piece of a mosaic depicting the head of a Peter's soldier. In another box they found another piece of mosaic - the standard of Peter I. In the remaining boxes there were also pieces of mosaic. It was the "Poltava battle" cut into pieces.
Descendants appreciated the amazing work of Lomonosov. Pieces of the mosaic were carefully removed from the boxes, put together, and the pieces of glass that had fallen out were replaced with new ones. Now a magnificent glass picture, reminding us of glorious military deeds Russian army brought back to life.
T There have always been many talented people in Russia, but there are few machines and various devices that facilitate and speed up work. And there were no machines at all in the Russian glass industry. in Russia until the 20th century. they only knew how to make dishes, bottles and window glass. A lot of mirror glass was ordered from abroad. There is nothing to say about optical glass: they did not know how to cook it at all. I had to work hard to catch up. Now all Russian glass factories have machines.
Glassmaking was a craft until recently. Now it has become a real science. But this does not mean at all that now the glazier no longer needs skill, talent. On the contrary, talent, art in this matter is now even more necessary than before.
The most difficult thing, of course, is to make glasses for a large telescope. This is like the highest, most stringent exam for glaziers. There were so few craftsmen who could polish such glasses that they can be listed by name. Such was, for example, Short. He lived over 200 years ago. It was a wonderful master real artist your business. Nobody could compare to him. Before his death, he broke all the polished lenses and mirrors. Alvino Clark, who lived in the 19th century, was also an amazing master. He made glasses for observatories all over the world.
Almost all such masters were self-taught, almost all of them fell into bondage to large optical firms and lived very poorly. But they did not give up their business, because they loved it.
These masters do not form one dynasty: the secret is easy to inherit, but the talent cannot be bequeathed. They can be compared, perhaps, with the great chess players. Both one and the other achieved success with their incredible perseverance, exerting all their strength. But a chess champion will play thousands of games, and a glazier will polish only a few large glasses in his whole life, which long after the death of the master will work flawlessly in telescopes of different countries, serve as a silent glass monument of great work ...
One of these famous masters- to the Englishman Grebb - glasses were ordered in 1912 for the new telescope of the Pulkovo Observatory. 10, 15 years have passed, and all the glasses were not ready. In 1930, the old master died a beggar, money for his funeral was collected by public subscription. And the question arose: to whom now to transfer the order?
The observatory turned to the famous German optical firm Zeiss. C.F. Zeiss was ready to get down to business: he had already stocked up a suitable piece of glass. Zeiss demanded 100,000 marks in gold for grinding and polishing. And he set one more indispensable condition: the deadline for completing the order is not indicated. He will try to do the job in two and a half years. But if it doesn't come out, it won't come out. Maybe you have to wait five years, maybe ten. What was to be done? Agree?
It was then that our Optical Institute suggested: before giving an answer to Zeiss, to see if there are such people in their country who could polish glasses for a telescope. And such a person really was found - one of the employees of the institute, physicist D.D. Maksutov, a man who devoted 30 years of his life to the construction of telescopes. As a boy, he made himself a telescope. Then he began to make small telescopes for schools, and then - mirrors and lenses for the most accurate optical instruments.
A special commission arranged a rigorous test for Maksutov's glasses: they were compared with similar glasses made by Zeiss. And what a surprise it was when they turned out to be no worse, and even better than Zeiss glasses. After that, there was, of course, no point in giving an order to Zeiss. We ourselves, on our own, began to build a new telescope. And it was done flawlessly.
So, almost by accident, it turned out that we were too modest, in vain did not trust our forces. There were people in Russia who were able to take on any task in glassmaking, to create not only excellent microscopes, but also the best, largest telescopes.
The material was prepared by P.A.KOSHEL
(Based on the book: Sveshnikov M.P. Secrets of glass. L.: Detgiz, 1955, 190 p.)
The Moscow Kremlin Museums have a rich collection of Russian engraved glass and crystal of the 17th-early 20th centuries and interesting examples of domestic porcelain of the 18th-19th centuries.
Glass production was one of the first branches of the Russian art industry that emerged at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. The leading role in the formation of the national school belonged to the Izmailovsky State Plant in Moscow. The Kremlin museums have unique products of this plant. This is a huge goblet made of light glass with engraved images of Peter I, surrounded by medallions with allegories from the popular Russian book “Symbols and Emblems”.
In the second decade of the 18th century, the center of glassmaking moved to St. Petersburg and concentrated on the Yamburg and Zhabinsky factories. Russians became the leading masters here for the first time. The products of the Yamburg plant are represented in the collection by goblets associated with the era of Peter the Great.
In the 30s of the XVIII century, the third center of glass production was formed - the St. Petersburg plant, which existed until 1774. His products testify to the flourishing of the national school of engraved glass, associated with the activities of the two largest masters - V. Pivovarov and D. Voilokov. Their work is large goblets with portraits of Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II. The carvers of the plant in the 40s-70s of the 18th century engraved coats of arms and monograms, architectural landscapes, and complex allegorical compositions on glass. They enhanced the decorativeness of engravings with blackening, gilding, and colored enamels.
In the collection, next to the magnificent works of the St. Petersburg factory, there are more modest products of private enterprises.
The Kremlin Museums have samples of products from the Imperial Glass Factory, founded in 1774, the fourth center of glass production. These are vases made of red glass, the so-called golden ruby, with a slight gold ornament, and of violet glass, which has a rare shade of rich black in massive thick-walled vessels.
At the beginning of the 19th century, lead crystal appeared and various mechanical methods for its processing appeared. The masters of the era of late classicism had a keenly developed sense of the ensemble. That's why great importance was given to the creation of glass and crystal sets, united by a common idea. The Imperial and Bakhmetevsky (near Penza) factories worked on their production.
By the middle of the 19th century, colored glass had revived. First, in the form of a ruby red on a colorless layer. Then products of saturated colors appeared - dense green, dark blue, and at the end of the 19th century the so-called marble glass.
Until the end of the 18th century, the shape and ornamentation of the products corresponded to the Baroque style. Elements of the rocaille Ornament were only partly introduced. Classicism style, established in late XVIII century, received special expressiveness in colored glass.
The 70s-90s of the 19th century were characterized by an appeal to the forms and ornamentation of folk glass in connection with the popularity of the pseudo-Russian style.
The activities of the glass manufacturers Maltsevs, who became monopolists in crystal production, reached an extraordinary scale. Crystal of the late XIX - early XX century distinguishes high quality material and virtuosic work of diamond miners. Very often, crystal products were set in silver, which emphasized the preciousness of the material.
The Kremlin museums display a small but interesting collection of Russian porcelain from the Imperial Factory and private enterprises.
The pride of the museum are products associated with the first period of the Imperial Factory (1747-1765). They are decorated with stucco floral decorations and paintings with oriental floral motifs. The artistic merit of works is the individuality of performance.
The products of the Imperial Factory of the 19th century are represented by individual items in Greek style, "Kremlin" service in pseudo-Russian style and vases painted by the artist Stoletov. These vases are rare for Russian porcelain examples of miniature copies of easel paintings.
The first private porcelain enterprise, founded in the 18th century, was the f. Gardner (Verbilki village near Moscow). An interesting phenomenon in porcelain art was the creation of famous order services at this factory. Unlike the Imperial Factory, Gardner developed folk theme; folk scenes were depicted in the painting, folk types were created in plastic.
Following Gardner, democratic tendencies in Russian porcelain of the 19th century were developed by A. Popov's factories and Gzhel porcelain enterprises. From a luxury item, porcelain has become a widespread material. Porcelain painting subjects were very diverse. The craftsmen of these factories repeated illustrations of fashion magazines in painting, reproduced genre scenes, but most often covered products with floral ornaments, which was characteristic feature Russian porcelain.
At the end of the 19th century, many factories went bankrupt, the production of porcelain was monopolized by the partnership of M. S. Kuznetsov, whose porcelain became really industrial-mass in those days.
But in the works of the Imperial Factory and the factory of the Kornilov brothers in St. Petersburg, porcelain again acquired the sound of a precious material. Their products reflected the high technical achievements of porcelain art.
This selection includes the best examples of glass and porcelain items of the 18th - early 20th centuries, stored in the funds of the Armory.