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  Imperial Glass Factory. 1777 - 1917 The exhibition in the Alexander Hall (Room 282) of the Winter Palace presents to the public around 500 exhibits drawn from the collections of the State Hermitage and other Russian museums: items of glass manufacture made from the 18th to the early 20th century as well as a variety of archival materials and graphics relating to the activity of the Imperial Glass Factory. Petersburg and the Petersburg Province were in the past noted for a well developed glass industry. Many districts of the Province of the capital had dozens of large and small glass works. The production of these factories was distributed through the entire north-west region and in St Petersburg itself. But high artistic levels were associated with those factories which were appointed to produce unique glass ware for the Russian Imperial Court. During the time of Peter the Great, the tsarist family was provided with glass by the very old glass works in Yamburg and Zhabinsk, which prepared luxury articles for imperial palaces and for the town houses of high society in the capital. In the mid-1730's an English merchant named William Elmsel founded the St Petersburg Glassworks on the banks of the Fontanka River. In this factory he produced works for the Imperial Court and also goods for sale to the public. By an order of the Senate in 1755 the glass production was transferred out of the capital to the city of Yamburg, and in 1774 to the settlement Nazya, near Schlusselburg. In 1777 Empress Catherine the Great presented the factory in Nazya as a gift to Prince Grigory Potemkin, who then moved it to the settlement of Ozerki on his private estate. The year 1777 is officially considered the date when the Potemkin factory was founded. After his death, it was renamed the Imperial Glass Factory in 1792. A special "Law on the Imperial Glass Factory" stated that this enterprise should produce "artistic works for presentation to the Imperial Court and to be granted to diverse persons and institutions in the Sovereign's name from His Majesty's Cabinet." The state glass factory also made works to satisfy orders received by His Imperial Majesty's Cabinet from the Glass Factory's store, which was located in the Quarenghi Cabinet on Nevsky Prospekt. All glassware was made in accordance with designs that received the Emperor's approval, and also following models and drawings that had been confirmed by the Minister of the Imperial Household or the director of His Imperial Majesty's Cabinet. The factory also produced glass vessels ordered by the section of the Palace Administration responsible for ensuring that the pantries of the Emperor's and the Grand Duke's palaces regularly were stocked with new sets of crystal service that were especially prepared for them. At the end of the 19th century the factory produced each year around 20,000 items of different kinds of glassware for the various palaces. Beginning in the 19th century, the Imperial Glass Factory produced glass objects for display in both domestic and international fairs, for charitable lotteries and for the museums attached to schools of art and industry. Like the other Imperial Manufactories, over the course of its existence the Glass Factory was an artistic treasure of the capital that figured in all the guide-books to St Petersburg. Despite the long period of its successful operations, following the First World War and the Revolution, the general economic collapse meant there were no longer resources available to maintain an elite glass production. After several unsuccessful attempts to keep it going, the Imperial Glass Factory was shut down. |
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Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
