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Hi all -
enamel from St. Petersburg is very rare! There are only very few firms who made it themselves. Most eamel was made in Moscow - unfortunately the outstanding artists never signed their work and therefore remain unknown. Here an exmple of the different qualities Timothy Hesketh sold:
Sorry, but the maker cannot be Timothy Hesketh. You see Hesketh was born in England 1775 and became master 1805 in St Petersburg. He died February 3. 1833 only 58 years old. Both objects show a dvoinik hallmark used 1882-1898. It means that Hesketh would have been at least 108 years of age when he made the napkins. The problem is a typo in Postnikova #1865 shows the year 1883 when it should be 1833. Postnikova also writes that he became master in 1805. Please calculate and you realize the impossibility yourself.
The maker's is, however, not unknown. The initials (TH) are not Latin but Cyrillic (TN). He is Timofei Nikolayevich Nikolayev active in St Petersburg 1874-1895. A perfect match with the marks on the napkins. Nikolayev also marked THH.
Hi -
thank you for the correction. Do you have a source?
Qrt.S wrote:Mind my asking, but aren't the rings painted?
Yes and no. It is not pure lacquer technique and not pure enamel technique - something between.
Painted with special colours on gilded silver and "baked" in an oven for a heattreatment of ca. 100°C.
Thanks to the trade contacts with China, wooden tablets, umbrellas, trays and similar items from China were painted in Russia. Already under Alexei I (* 1629, † 1676) were already some rooms of the Kolomenskojer palace near Moscow in the "Chinese style".
Since the time of Peter the Great, there was a great interest in artistic paintwork in Russia. One of the rooms of Peter I in the Peterhof, in the Monplaisir pleasure palace, was decorated in 1721 with 94 varnish wall panels. These were painted in the "Chinese style" by the Russian painters Ivan Tikhonov (Russian Иван Тихонов) and Perfili Fedorov (Russian Перфили Федоров). The painting was done under the guidance of the Dutch painter Hendrik van Bronkhorst, who worked in Russia until 1744.
On his journey through Holland, Peter had visited large European manufacturers. He bought a number of pieces of furniture with lacquer paintings and invited foreign painters to Russia. Peter also sent Russian pupils abroad to study abroad. After the founding of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg in 1757, artists were taught in the art of lacquer in their classes.
In the time of Peter the Great, there was a "varnish court" ( Лакирный двор), which lay in the so-called Italian house ( Итальянский дворец, opposite the Italian bridge) of Katharina I. on the banks of the Fontanka river. There were workshops and camps. In 1761, Fedor Vlasov ( Фёдор Власов) decorated the palace of Peter II in Oranienbaum (castle Oranienbaum, Дворец Ораниенбаум) - today Lomonossov, with unique lacquer paintings.
Gradually many workshops were built in Russia, in particular around Saint Petersburg and Moscow, in which lacquer paintings and lacquer works were carried out.
As already mentioned - most of the artists are unfortunately unknown.
Yes I always have a source even if I am more seldom referring to it. I do not pick my answers from the sky, not in this case or any other (kokoshnik 1898...!)! Take that for granted. Nonetheless, the source in this case is mainly the well known Leonard Bäcksbacka's book from 1951. It is the main base to Postnikova's St Petersburg section. The rest is in Blue Ivanov Vol I.
About the lacquer technique.
Goldstein wrote:Painted with special colours on gilded silver and "baked" in an oven for a heattreatment of ca. 100°C.
I'm not particularly familiar with paint and painting on silver and therefore a bit curious. However, I know the enamel techniques.
Enamel is powdered "glass". Its melting point is ~500°C (lover than silver). The lacquer paint would, anyway, burn in a second in that heat. I anticipate therefore that the enamel must be applied before the painting is done. You seem to have many books about lacquer, I don't have. Please explain how the enamel appears in the painting and what is the idea with it.
Thank you in advance.
Hi -
this is a very complex theme, not only black or white. I try to explain the different techniques without writing a new book:
The production of the varnish from the lacquer tree was very complex. The resinous liquid substance had to be extracted from the plant as well as dyed and filtered. He was applied to the objects in many layers (10 to 200 layers). After drying, it formed a very thin layer on the articles. The Chinalack does not dry at room temperature either alone or very slowly, but only at a temperature of 96 ° C. In some techniques, the varnish is polished to high gloss after each newly applied varnish layer, but especially the topmost layer. This smooth polishing is carried out in Asia with shells of cephalopods (eg the back of squid as a very fine abrasive), but in Russia with teeth of wolves.
Originally, Chinalack was used to protect equipment and vessels from corrosion and to make them watertight to protect furniture and images from insect and moisture damage as it is very resistant to chemical and physical influences. Over time, it developed into a decorative art.
The varnishing gives the surface a luster. The varnish is pleasant to the touch because it adapts when touching the hand warmth. It is heat-resistant, acid-resistant, alkali-resistant and water-resistant (also against hot water). It also protects the surfaces to a certain extent against scratches and wear marks. The varnish layer is hard after drying, but is flexible, resistant to hot water, does not smell and is not subject to biological disintegration. Lacquer is cheap, hygienic, it can be painted and shaped as well as modeled and cut. It can be applied to any surface, whether on flat surfaces or on figures, on wood, bamboo, paper, fabric, leather, horsehair, metal or stone.
Black lacquer work was also carried out with shellac.
Paintings often have further adornments, for example inlays made of gold, silver or mother-of-pearl. A special feature is the lacquer carving and the dry lacquer technology.
Wischnjakow
Filipp Nikitisch Vischnjakov (Филипп Никитич Вишняков) opened a workshop for paints and lacquers in the village of Shostowo (Жостово) in 1780, which was then moved to Moscow. He had worked for a while in the workshop in Fedoskino, where he looked at the technique and the technology before he had opened his own workshop. After Filipp Vishnakov had accumulated sufficient capital, he acted his own goods in Moscow, and then moved to Moscow, to the Zwetnoj Bulwar (Цветной бульвар). His factory existed until 1840.
In Moscow he opened a new workshop, while the workshop in the village of Shostowo continued his brother Tars Vishnakov until his son Ossip grew. In 1825 Ossip Filippovich Vishnakov (son of Filipp Nikitich Vishnakov), the son of Filipp Nikitich Vishnakov, took over the workshop and successfully carried it on, until it was passed on by his uncles Peter and Vasily.
Ossip Vishnakov later founded his own workshop together with E. F. Belayev (Е. Ф. Беляев). This workshop of Vishnakov and Belayev, whose first products appeared in 1830, became the largest in the region and became an important competitor to the operation of Korobov and Lukutin in Fedoskinos at the beginning of the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century the lacquer miniatures from the factory of Vishnakov were as well known as those of Lukutin. Both factories competed, they were the two outstanding workshops for lacquer miniatures in the Moscow region. Both workshops influenced each other in their art, masters were exchanged, painting techniques caught, technical innovations of the other taken over.
Ossip Wischnjakow also appeared in the markets on his competition from the Urals, which offered lacquer paintings on metal and recognized the needs of the market for such. In the Urals, the metallurgical works of the Demidov family (a Russian entrepreneurial dynasty) - in: Nizhny Tagil (there are still metal tablets made and painted today), Newjansk and Nowouralsk (Werch-Newinsk). Wischnjakow turned his production on metal tablets with lacquer paintings. To avoid any trouble with the competition from the Urals because of plagiarism accusations, he changed the motives. His tablets were adorned with the previous lacquer paintings, in contrast to the "primitive" pictures from the Urals. The monopoly of the Vishnakov family on tablets with lacquer paintings did not last long. After the abolition of the physical condition in Russia in 1861, entrepreneurial farmers from the neighborhood followed his example and opened workshops for varnished trays at home. The metal tablets were purchased from local forges. The Russian culture of tea drinking, with samovar and sweets (honey, Warenje, Russian fruit confectionery, Russian honey-strawberry gingerbread, Kowrischki, Piroggen, Kulitsch) fostered the strong demand for pretty lacquer-painted tablets. In the workshop of Vishnakov were painted initially trays and objects made of paper mache. In 1830, the paintings on metal at Wischnjakov completely replaced the paintings on paper mache. Paint painting on papier mâché was transferred to the village of Ostashkovo.
The further development of the painting from Shostovo was influenced stylistically by the enamel painting of factories in the Moscow and St. Petersburg region and the porcelain painting, in particular the lacquer miniatures from the operation of Lukutin in Fedoskino.
As said before: it is no painting and it is no enamel - it is enamel painting with the benefits of both techniques.
Hi -
thanks for the positive reaction.
Russian enamels and/or lacquers are an interesting field - particularly the masterly interlacing of these two materials are outstanding. Unfortunately you can not find these objects today anymore - when authentic only for astronomic prices.
Here some exemplares from Khlebnikov and Ovtschinnikov. Even Kopf made some. Very strange...
Not to speak from the painted paper maché - mostly little artworks - but this is a silver forum.
Russian arts and crafts merit being better known outside the empire. There is, for example, a certain ware, called Laukautinski, from the name of its inventor, which can vie with the choicest products of Japan. Like Japanese ware, it has a strong firm lacquer, red inside and black out, and on this are painted figures in enamel, landscapes, groups. Here too blue and red colours seem to be the favourites, with an occasional intermixture of gold. Boxes of all dimensions, album covers, cigarette cases, portfolios, etc., are all turned out in this ware, which unfortunately is exceedingly expensive, and but for this fact would perhaps be more widely known in the West. Its effectiveness as well as durability is beyond praise.
Russian gold and silver smith work is of the first class, and always worthily competes at the great international exhibitions; as regards workmanship, solidity of handling, and originality of design, these products are admirable in the extreme.
Source: The Leisure Hour - Volume 43 - 1894
Is it the same technique? Of Laukautinski I could find no further reference.
Neither a query in the very competent lacquer museum in Münster/Germany nor a review of my specific technical literature has given an indication. I suspect a dealer / importer of these articles.
