Applied art

The collection of kerchiefs and shawls, which numbers over a thousand Russian-produced specimens, holds a worthy place among the treasures of the Museum of History. Of special value are the items carrying the manufacturers’ trademarks.

Today lace-making is carried on at the centres in Vologda, Yelets, Sovietsk (formely the Sloboda of Kukarka), Mikhailov, and Kirishi, which produce hand-made pillow lace in characteristic manner, differing from district to district.

The old traditions of artistic metal-working are developing successfully in modern applied art. This can be seen in the lacelike filigree of the decorative patterns which are a feature of the work of jewellers at Krasnoye-on-Volga, Kostroma region.

Russian folk toys are well represented by work from a wide variety of centres renowned throughout the country for toy making. In and around Moscow one of the most popular kind of toys is those from Bogorodskoye, which are skiltully carved in wood. They vary in character and degree of complexity, and show great diversity of theme. The lathe-turned toys of Zagorsk have original painted ornamentation with poker-work outlines. Babino craftsmen (Podolsk district) make fascinating miniature toys, brightly coloured and polished.

The decorative art of Soviet Byelorussia develops on the basis of the national traditions of folk art and modern artistic fashions and techniques with a new approach to the image and principles of decorative expression.

The formation of Byelorussian decorative art took place in the 14th — 18th centuries, the times when many famous handicraft centres appeared. Then Byelorussian wood-carvers, jewellers and weavers worked not only in Byelorussia but also in Muscovy. They adorned the Donskoy and Novodevichve monasteries and the Palace in Kolomenskoye with carved work and tiled the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem monastery.