Pre-revolutionary painted tray, Zhostovo

An original and quite rare tray in excellent condition. Brass, painted with paints. Size 300*396 mm. Guarantee of authenticity.

The small village of Zhostovo, which is not far from Mytishchi, has become known outside the Moscow region (and even Russia) due to its unique, colorful, recognizable among dozens of related areas of painting. Zhostovsky trays are one of the symbols of Russian folk art. It originated in the XIX century, it could have suffered the sad fate of many prematurely disappeared crafts, but Zhostovsky painting still lives today. In 1825, the village craftsmen Vishnyakov, serfs of Count Sheremetyevo, learned at the manufactory where they worked, the technology of varnishing metal products and structures made of papier-mache. So in the villages and villages of the Trinity parish there were workshops that produced painted products from papier-mache, varnished. There is another version: the son of the owner of the metropolitan factory, the miniaturist Vishnyakov, originated a famous craft. The confusion that arose because of the surnames does not allow us to say exactly who became the progenitor of the famous Zhostovsky trays. But in art there is a concept that can be called "the ripening of creativity." So, in the same Trinity parish, in several of its settlements, a situation was created that gave rise to a unique creative direction. And it is no longer so important who was the first: the Vishnyakov brothers who bought themselves free or the miniaturist with the same surname.

Zhostovsky craft is interesting because the masters did not have samples, they wrote by imagination, improvisationally. But behind this improvisation there was a clear understanding of the rules and a honed technique. In fairness, it must be said that the motives of painting trays Zhostovsky masters borrowed from Tagil artists. Tagil craft is a century older than Zhostovsky and it is characterized by the same finish of metal trays.

In the XX century, the Novoseltsevo labor artel was formed in Novoseltsevo, one of the villages of the Mytishchi district. The company produced metal trays with a lacquer coating. Two years later, two more branches were formed in Zhostovo – "Zhostovskaya Trudovaya" and "Spetskustar", and after them "Varnisher", "Svoy Trud" (only in Troitsk). In 1928, they all merged into a single system. The geographical location of the village was in the hands of artists: they could, without using the services of intermediaries, sell goods in Moscow. It was also convenient to buy raw materials for work there. At the same time, the first Soviet years were not easy for the Zhostov masters: it was time for socialist realism and naturalism in art, traditional craft was becoming irrelevant. But the artists managed to keep the direction, the interest in which reappeared during the Khrushchev "thaw". Russian creations got to international exhibitions, and foreign demand gave rise to mass production of inexpensive souvenirs.