Imperial Glass Factory. 1777 - 1917

On 18 May 2004 an exhibition opened in the Alexander Hall (Room 282) of the Winter Palace to mark the 225th anniversary of the Glass Factory. The approximately 500 exhibits on display come from the collections of the State Hermitage, State Museum-Park "Pavlovsk", State Museum-Park "Tsarskoye Selo", Russian State Historical Archive, M. Gorky House of Scholars, Russian Academy of Arts, Museum of the St Petersburg State Academy of the Arts and Industry, State Museum of the History of St Petersburg, Elagin Palace-Museum of Russian Decorative and Applied Arts and Interior Design of the 18th-20th Centuries. The exhibits are glass works dating from the 18th to early 20th centuries, as well as a variety of archival materials and graphics relating to the activity of the Imperial Glass Factory.

In the mid-1730’s an English merchant named William Elmzel 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 gave the factory in Nazya 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." 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. At the end of the 19th century the factory produced each year more than 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.

During the First World War and after the Revolution funds were insufficient to maintain production of elite goods and the factory closed its doors.

T.A. Malinina, the Curator of the exhibition, is the leading scholarly researcher of the State Hermitage’s Section on the History of Russian Culture. The Slavia Publishing House has published an illustrated scholarly catalogue of the exhibition that includes articles by the research staff and museum curators who took part in organizing the exhibition.

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Vladimir Matveyev, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Development, and Tamara Malinina, the Curator of the exhibition, at the ceremony

At the exhibition

At the ceremony