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The St. PetersburgerA heritage guide to Russian crafts

Section 03 of 06

Painted Crafts: Khokhloma, Gzhel and Lacquer

A brush, a kiln and three centuries: khokhloma’s fake gold, gzhel’s cobalt, and the miniature villages that never stopped painting.

Black lacquered wooden bowl with red and gold berry scrollwork next to a white porcelain cup painted in cobalt blue flowers

Paint is where Russian craft is most itself: a wooden spoon that pretends to be gold, a white cup that carries one shade of cobalt through a dozen tones, a papier mache box holding a fairy tale in miniature. Each of these traditions grew in a specific place, around a specific technical trick, and each trick leaves evidence on the finished piece.

Khokhloma shows its furnace work in the depth of its black, gzhel shows its kiln in the run of the cobalt, and the lacquer villages show their hands in brushwork that no printed transfer can quite fake. The guides read all three, and mark the line between painted and printed.

In this section

  1. Black lacquered metal tray with a bold painted floral bouquet beside a small black papier mache box showing a gold accented miniature scene

    Painted trays and lacquer boxes: Zhostovo and the miniature villages

    Two painted traditions on humble grounds: flowers on iron trays from one village near Moscow, and fairy tales in tempera on papier mache from four.

  2. White porcelain teapot and cup painted with cobalt blue roses beside a raw dab of deep cobalt pigment on a white cloth

    Gzhel: one cobalt, a dozen blues

    The whole style is a single pigment handled like watercolor: cobalt on white, fired hard, and recognizable by a brushstroke no two of which match.

  3. Set of black lacquered wooden spoons and a bowl painted with red and gold scrolling berry vines arranged on a dark cloth

    Khokhloma: how wood learned to shine like gold

    No gold is used and everything shines: khokhloma is a chemistry trick, an icon painter’s inheritance and one of the great wooden crafts of Europe.

Two neighbouring sections continue the story: Matryoshka & Dolls and Amber & Jewelry. The recognition rules shared by every craft are collected in the guide to spotting fakes.