Pavlovo locks and knives, Purekh bells are the metalworking crafts of the Nizhny Novgorod land: the lock-, knife-, scissors-, and file-making trades of Pavlovo and neighboring villages, and the casting of harness (duga) bells in Purekh. This is one branch of the larger circle of crafts of the Nizhny Novgorod land, and the oldest of the metalworking ones: in 1621 the land-survey books recorded 11 smithies in the village of Pavlovo[1]. From the second half of the 17th century a metal-fitting trade developed here — edged and firearms, knives, scissors, scale beams — and Pavlovo padlocks came into wide use[2]. In the 17th and 18th centuries Pavlovo produced up to five thousand locks a year, and when the artisan lockmakers took up knives, scissors, and razors, the village came to be called the "Russian Sheffield"[3].
A land of metalworkers
The craft spread across the surrounding area, and each village took up its own specialty. In 1766, by decree of Count P. B. Sheremetev, a metalworking factory for guns, knives, tongs, and locks was established in Vorsma, and in 1820 a serf, Ivan Gavrilovich Zavyalov, opened his own knife workshop there[4]; Vorsma knives were famed for handles of jasper, mother-of-pearl, and bone[5]. In Vacha in 1830 a serf, Dmitry Ivanovich Kondratov, started making bread knives, and in 1889 Vacha wares received a large gold medal at the Paris World's Fair[6]; at the turn of the 20th century Vacha was ranked alongside Sheffield and Solingen[7].
In Tumbotino scissors were "fitted" and "faced"[8], and in Sosnovskoye files were made that earned an honorable mention at the same Paris exhibition in 1889[9]. On the eve of the First World War the trading house "M. I. Terebin and Sons" produced 489 varieties of knives, the Pavlovo artisan cooperative 550, and the enterprises of the trading house "Heirs of D. D. Kondratov" 1,000 kinds and patterns[10].
Bells were another, cast branch of the trade. The copper-founding craft arose in Purekh in Balakhna Uyezd in 1830–1835 and, according to tradition, was brought from Kasimov, although the bells of Mikhail Sirotkin and Ivan Mityunin were already cast here in 1815 and 1816; the proximity of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka helped the Purekh makers push out the older centers, and in the early twentieth century the Purekh bell became, in effect, the only one on the Russian market[11]. Its ring lasted more than 40 seconds after being struck — about 30 for the best Valdai bells[12]. Harness (duga) bells were also cast in the metalworking area around Pavlovo — in Pavlovo itself, in Sosnovskoye, and in Vitkulovo of Gorbatov Uyezd[11].
Pavlovo craftsmen also became famous for extremes of size. Mikhail Khvorov, according to P. D. Boborykin, made twenty-five small locks to a single zolotnik — 4.26 grams[13]; the Pavlovo Historical Museum holds locks ranging from a giant weighing more than 50 kilograms to a micro-lock of 0.09 grams that opens with a tiny key[14], and in 2003 the "Tsar-Lock" weighing 415.5 kilograms was forged in Pavlovo[3]. Pavlovo wares are found in the Hermitage and in the State Historical Museum, which holds a lock of 1767 in the shape of a bird[3], while the Russian Museum holds six copper figured locks of the eighteenth century from the selo of Pavlovo[15]. The life of the artisans was described by V. G. Korolenko in his "Pavlovo Sketches"[16]. Below are listed the crafts and products, villages, manufacturers and founders, artels and factories, craftsmen, museums, exhibitions, and books.
Crafts: locks, knives, scissors, bells
The metalworking crafts of the area were divided by village: Pavlovo specialized in locks and knives, Vorsma in knives with costly finishing, Tumbotino in scissors, Sosnovskoye in files, and Purekh in bells and small jingle bells. In the second half of the nineteenth century, ten of the thirteen settlements of Sosnovskaya Volost were engaged in these crafts[9], and in the early twentieth century the steel goods and knives of the Vorsma artisans were granted hallmarks bearing the tsarist double-headed eagle[5].
The artisan sold his goods to a buyer-up. In February 1897 Korolenko, who had come to Pavlovo from Vacha, wrote to his wife that on Monday, from five or six in the morning, the buying-up would begin, which was the very reason he had come[16].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pavlovo metalworking craft | forges known since 1621; steel-locksmithing craft since the second half of the 17th century | In 1621 the land-survey registers recorded 11 forges in the selo of Pavlovo in Gorbatov Uyezd, and in the 19th century Pavlovo became the center of a metalworking area covering more than two hundred settlements. |
| Pavlovo lockmaking craft | from the 17th–18th century; heyday in the 19th century | The padlock is the chief pride of Pavlovo's craftsmen, and Pavlovo padlocks became widely popular; the collection of the Pavlovo Historical Museum includes locks ranging from a giant weighing more than 50 kg to a micro-lock of 0.09 grams that opens with a tiny key. |
| Vorsma knifemaking craft | from the 18th century; the Zavyalov family's knifemaking from 1820 | Vorsma's craftsmen learned the trade from those of Pavlovo and became famous for the finish of their knives: handles were made of jasper, mother-of-pearl, and bone, and in Soviet times Vorsma was called the country's "knife capital." |
| Vacha knifemaking craft | 18th century — guns; from the 19th century — knives and cutlery | In the 18th century Vacha's craftsmen made hunting guns for export to Persia, and in the 19th century, after switching to knives and cutlery, they made Vacha one of Russia's main metalworking centers. |
| Tumbotino scissors-making craft | from the second half of the 19th century; artel from January 14, 1916 | Scissors-making in Tumbotino began with small workshops where scissors were "fitted" and "finished"; among the first were the manufactories of I. and A. Rodionov and D. Kondratov. |
| Sosnovskoye file-making craft | second half of the 19th century — 20th century; the Metallist factory from 1888 | Files made in Sosnovskoye from English and German steel received an honorable mention at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. |
| Purekh bells | individual bells from 1815–1816; the craft from 1830–1835 until World War I | Purekh harness bells kept ringing for more than 40 seconds after being struck — longer than the best Valdai bells, whose ring lasted about 30 seconds. |
| Pavlovo buying-up | 19th century | Buyers bought locks and knives from Pavlovo's artisans at early markets, especially on Monday mornings; Korolenko observed this "buying-up" in Pavlovo, going out into the streets from three o'clock in the morning. |
Locks, Knives, and Other Goods
Miniature brass silhouette padlocks shaped like animals and birds were made in Pavlovo from the mid-1760s until the early 20th century; they were used to lock chests and caskets, and Count P. B. Sheremetev is considered the initiator of their manufacture[17]. Figured locks in the shape of a rooster or a black grouse "crowed" when opened, while tiny padlocks with their own little keys were worn as ornaments on waistcoat and watch chains[13]. At the other extreme was an advertising lock weighing 50 kilograms, with a forged shackle and a fully working mechanism, made in 1923 for the First All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow[18].
Pavlovo knives came in many kinds: table and kitchen knives, folding knives and pocketknives, bread and butcher's knives, fillet and sideboard knives, garden knives, and knives for butter and for sugar[10]. From 1858, surgical instruments in Pavlovo were made by the F. M. Varypaev factory[19].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pavlovo figured locks | from the mid-1760s to the early 20th century | Miniature brass and copper silhouette padlocks shaped like beasts, birds, mermaids, and horsemen secured chests and caskets; in Pavlovo they were made from the mid-1760s to the early 20th century. |
| Pavlovo miniature locks | 19th–20th centuries | Tiny Pavlovo locks with their own little keys were worn as ornaments on waistcoat and watch chains; according to P. D. Boborykin, the craftsman Mikhail Khvorov made twenty-five locks to a zolotnik (4.26 grams). |
| Tsar-Lock | 2003 | A padlock 185 cm tall and weighing 415 kg including its key was made by twenty students of the Pavlovo Art and Industrial Vocational School together with their teachers; it is on display in Pavlovo at 8 Lenin Street, in the building of the Dynasty restaurant. |
| Pavlovo folding knife | from the 19th century | Pavlovo knives include table and kitchen knives, folding knives and penknives, bread knives, garden knives, and Finnish knives; the collection of the Pavlovo Historical Museum includes a folding "piglet" knife with 100 implements. |
| "Pig" multi-tool knife | 1949 or 1951 | A pig-shaped folding knife carrying one hundred implements is kept in the Pavlovo Historical Museum; according to tradition, it was being prepared as a gift to Stalin for his 1949 jubilee. |
| Pavlovo knife models | from the 1930s | In the 1930s, Pavlovo craftsmen assembled models out of knives — Lenin's Mausoleum from 97 knives and a Kremlin tower from 143 knives, while the craftsman A. I. Khonin put together the coat of arms of the USSR from 122 knives. |
| Pavlovo surgical instruments | from 1858 | From 1858, surgical instruments were made by the F. M. Varypaev factory in Pavlovo, and during World War I the Pavlovo Artisan Cooperative filled army orders — medical instruments, entrenching shovels, and wire cutters. |
Villages and Towns of the Metalworkers
The center of the metalworking area was Pavlovo, and around it lay villages with their own specialties: Vorsma and Tumbotino in what is now Pavlovsky District, Vacha and its surroundings (Vachsky District), and Sosnovskoye and Selitba (Sosnovsky District). The bell-making village of Purekh, formerly part of Balakhna Uyezd, lies apart from this area, in what is now Chkalovsky District.
The villages lived by their trade from generation to generation: the Pavlovo craftsmen taught their craft to their neighbors as well, so that knives came to be made in Vorsma too[5], and in Soviet times the Vorsma association "Oktyabr" produced 95% of all folding knives in the USSR[4].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pavlovo | 11 smithies in the early 17th century, 40 by 1677; first steel factory in 1820 | A selo (a larger village) of Gorbatov Uyezd, where 11 smithies were already operating in the early 17th century and 40 by 1677; its residents were famed as makers of weapons, knives, scissors, scales, and padlocks, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries Pavlovo became the center of a metalworking district of more than two hundred selos and villages. |
| Vorsma | locksmith factory from 1766; urban-type settlement from 1926, town from 1955 | In 1766, by decree of Count P. B. Sheremetev, a locksmith factory making guns, knives, tongs, and locks was established in Vorsma, and from then on the town lived on knives, scissors, surgical instruments, and cutlery. |
| Vacha | Kondratov knife workshop from 1830; urban-type settlement from 1938 | At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Vacha was considered one of the largest centers of metalworking, on a par with England's Sheffield and Germany's Solingen — so famous were the local knives. |
| Tumbotino | manufactories from the second half of the 19th century; artel from January 14, 1916 | A settlement in Pavlovsky District where, in the second half of the 19th century, the scissors manufactories of I. and A. Rodionov and D. Kondratov appeared; the building of the Kondratov manufactory is now the main building of the Tumbotino medical instrument plant. |
| Purekh | bells from 1815–1816; trade from 1830–1835 until the First World War | At various times, between 8 and 15 small plants casting harness bells, more like workshops, operated in Purekh and its surroundings, the Purekh and Andreyevo volosts. |
| Sosnovskoye | blacksmithing from the early 17th century; Metallist factory from 1888 | The people of Sosnovskoye had long lived by wild-bee beekeeping, mastered blacksmithing by the early 17th century, and in the second half of the 19th century ten of the thirteen settlements of the Sosnovskaya volost were engaged in the trades. |
| Selitba | late 19th – early 20th century | In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, smithies stood along the entire length of the selo on the right bank of the Pava, where axes were forged by hand for 12 to 14 hours a day, with work starting at two in the morning. |
Manufacturers, Trading Houses, and Founders of Artels
Many manufacturers rose from serfdom. Fyodor Mikhailovich Varypaev (1818–1900), born a serf of the Counts Sheremetev, collected more than 30 awards at exhibitions in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Paris, and Vienna, held the title of supplier to the Court of His Imperial Majesty, and for ten years served as the Pavlovo volost elder[19]. The Vorsma knifemaker I. G. Zavyalov received 5,000 rubles, a caftan with gold braid, and the medal "For Usefulness" from Nicholas I in 1835[4], while the Vachsky factory was run for almost half a century, from 1842 to 1891, by Dmitry Dmitrievich Kondratov[6].
Alexander Genrikhovich Stange chose a different path: in 1887 he settled in Pavlovo with the idea of uniting the craftsmen, in 1890 he organized the Pavlovo Craftsmen's Artel, and in 1893, after its charter was approved, he became chairman of its board[20].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fyodor Mikhailovich Varypaev | 1818–1900; knives and scissors from 1848, surgical instruments from 1858 | A serf of the Counts Sheremetev who remained in the peasant estate almost until the end of his life, he ran a factory in Pavlovo making locks, knives, scissors, and surgical instruments and bore the title of Purveyor to the Court of His Imperial Majesty. |
| Kalyakin family | manufactory from 1816 | Ivan Ignatyevich Kalyakin (1795–1856) opened a locksmith manufactory in Pavlovo in 1816 producing table and pocket knives, scissors, and razors, and in 1847 received the right to place the state coat of arms on his products. |
| Trading House "M. I. Terebin's Sons" | from a nineteenth-century locksmith workshop until nationalization after 1917 | The factory of the brothers Aleksey and Vasily Mikhailovich Terebin, opened as a locksmith workshop, was turning out 489 varieties of knives on the eve of the First World War and was one of the largest enterprises in Pavlovo. |
| Shchetkin Pyotr Vasilyevich | factory and estate — 1900s | A merchant from Gorbatov, owner of the trading house "Shchetkin and Sons" and of a factory making shovels, knife and lock wares, and files on Krasnoarmeyskaya Street in Pavlovo, where 222 people worked. |
| Gomulin family | Illarion Ivanovich — 1824–1871; Vasily Illarionovich — 1851–1904; bells of the 1870s–1880s | Pavlovo traders in steel goods: Illarion Gomulin (1824–1871) sold locksmith wares at the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka, and his son Vasily (1851–1904) conducted commission trade in locks, knives, and scissors; the harness-arch bells of the "Gomulin Brothers" dated 1877 and the bells marked "Manufacturer Vasily Illarionovich Gomulin" of 1881 and 1884 are widely known. |
| Podshibikhin family | scale workshop from 1872 | Konstantin Andreyevich Podshibikhin (1846–1906) opened a workshop for beam scales in the village of Molyavino in 1872, and then founded "K. A. Podshibikhin's Steel Goods Factory" — a dispersed locksmith manufactory. |
| Shtange Aleksandr Genrikhovich | 1854–1932; in Pavlovo from 1887; artel from 1890 | A graduate of Dorpat University who came to Pavlovo in 1887, he founded the Pavlovo Artisan Artel in 1890, from which the Kirov Plant grew, and later became the first chairman of the council of the All-Russian Union of Trade Cooperatives. |
| Zavyalov Factory | 1820–1918; partnership from 1891 | The cutlery business opened in Vorsma in 1820 by Ivan Gavrilovich Zavyalov, a serf of Count Sheremetev, had the right to place the state coat of arms on its hallmark from 1841, and in 1891 the "Partnership for the Production of Steel Goods of L. and A. Zavyalov" was established to manage it. |
| Kondratov Dmitry Dmitriyevich | head of the factory in 1842–1891 | The son of the serf Dmitry Ivanovich Kondratov, who opened a workshop in Vacha in 1830 for making bread knives, he ran the factory for almost half a century; under him, Vacha knives received the grand gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1889. |
Founders of Purekh Casting
The founders of the Purekh trade are considered to be the local peasant families of the Vedeneevs and the Troshins. The Vedeneev copper foundry was established in 1832 (or 1836) and lasted until 1912; in 1885, Fyodor Vedeneev received a bronze medal "For Diligence and Skill" at the first governorate exhibition of handicrafts. The workshop of Mikhail Troshin, opened in 1878, operated longer than the others, until 1928, and the products of Aleksey Troshin received a silver medal at the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod[12].
Besides them, small bells were cast by the Ovechkins, Starkovs, Obrokovs, Kozhevnikovs, Chernigins, Dobrynins, Skurovs, Molevs, Makarovs, Safronovs, and Klyuykovs; almost all the workshops of the surrounding area, wherever they stood, stamped the name of the village of Purekh on their wares[12] — "Factory of Yegor Sp. Klyuykov in Purikha, Nizhegorod. Governorate. 1890"[11].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Troshins | 1860s–1928 | A dynasty of Purekh foundrymen: Makar Yakovlevich Troshin worked in the 1860s–1870s, his sons Fedot, Aleksey, and Mikhail kept their own workshops, and Mikhail's workshop, opened in 1878, survived until 1928. |
| Vedeneevs | foundry from 1832 or 1836 to 1912 | The Vedeneev copper foundry was established in Purekh in 1832 or 1836 and lasted until 1912; together with the Troshins, they are considered the founders of the Purekh trade. |
| Yegor Spiridonovich Klyuykov | foundry from 1879 to the First World War | A Purekh factory owner whose bell-, harness-bell-, and copper-casting workshop, founded in 1879 in the village of Ostanovo, two versts from Purekh, reached its heyday by the First World War; in 1906, it was the first to try turning small bells on a lathe with the help of an engine. |
Artels and Factories
In the twentieth century, the craftsmen were organized into artels (cooperatives). In 1900, the Pavlovo craft artel received a gold medal at the Russian-French exhibition in Paris, followed by 9 more gold and 13 silver awards, and in 1956 it became the Kirov Plant[21]; today it produces 35% of the tableware cutlery made in Russia[3]. In 1924, the lockmakers joined together in the Truzhenik artel, consisting of 49 individual craftsmen; in 1929, with the addition of four more artels, it became the Metallist artel, and in 1974 it became the Mekhinstrument research and production association[22].
Plants also grew out of old factories: in Tumbotino, a medical instrument plant operates in the building of D. Kondratov's manufactory[8], and the Vachsky Trud plant traces its history to the Kondratov establishment of 1830[6].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Kirov Pavlovo Art Metalware Plant | artel from 1890; plant from 1956 | The former Pavlovo artisan artel of A. G. Shtange won a gold medal at the Russian-French exhibition in Paris in 1900, collected 9 gold and 13 silver medals before the First World War, and in 1956 became the Kirov Plant. |
| Mekhinstrument Association | "Truzhenik" artel from 1924; "Metallist" artel from 1929; "Mekhinstrument" from 1974 | It grew out of the "Truzhenik" lock-making artel, which in 1924 united 49 solitary artisans; in 1929 four more artels joined it, and the combined "Metallist" artel brought together the best lock-making masters of Pavlovo. |
| Pavlovo Tool Plant | traces its history to 1820; in 2003 the Pavlovsky Instrument LLC was created on its basis | The plant, which traces its history to a tool workshop opened in Pavlovo by the industrialist Terebin in 1820, had by the end of the Soviet era become one of the country's largest producers of locksmith and assembly tools, with which the cars of domestic automobile plants were equipped. |
| Pavlovo "Souvenir" Plant (plant-souvenir.ru) | the plant's website, 2002–2006 | The OAO "Pavlovo Art Metalware Plant 'Souvenir'" produced folding, souvenir, tourist, and hunting knives with blades of 65Kh13 and 95Kh18 stainless steel, as well as filigree, badges, coats of arms, and uniform fittings. |
| "Trud" Plant (Vacha) | from 1830; "Trud" from May 1923 | The plant grew out of a bread-knife workshop opened in 1830 by the serf Dmitry Ivanovich Kondratov; in 1919 the factory was nationalized, and in May 1923 the workers named it "Trud" at a general meeting. |
| Lenin Medical Instrument Plant (Vorsma) | from the Zavyalov factory of 1820; AO "MIZ-Vorsma" from 1992 | The successor of the Zavyalov factory, which after the revolution was nationalized and became the V. I. Lenin Medical Instrument Plant, it makes scalpels, scissors, tweezers, clamps, needle holders, and veterinary instruments. |
| "Oktyabr" Production Association (Vorsma) | Soviet period | In the Soviet period the Vorsma "Oktyabr" plant produced, by various accounts, up to 90% of all folding knives in the USSR, as well as gift knives for the highest nomenklatura; after the collapse of the USSR the enterprise closed. |
| "Gorizont" Plant (Tumbotino) | artel from January 14, 1916; "12 Years of October" from 1929; plant from 1956; OAO PO "Gorizont" from 1992 | On December 14, 1929, the Tumbotino artisan labor artel merged with the Tumbotino District and Sannitsa artels under the name "12 Years of October," became a plant in 1956, and since 1992 has been called OAO PO "Gorizont." |
| "Saro" Folding Knife Factory | from 1996 | The Vorsma "Saro" factory produces more than 500 types of products, including ones made of Damascus and "blue" steel, and in 2021 it opened a knife museum on its premises. |
Pavlovo Craftsmen
The names of Pavlovo's craftsmen are linked with micro-miniature work and knife-model assembly. A padlock weighing 0.7 grams was made in the 19th century by M. M. Khvorov; a padlock that locks the eye of a needle was made in the 20th century by P. V. Kulikov, who also forged a flea visible only under a microscope; the coat of arms of the USSR, assembled from 122 knives, was made by A. I. Khonin[23]. A "rooster" made of 14 knives is the work of K. I. Kulagin[13].
A hundred-item folding "pig" knife was made, according to some sources, by A. V. Ananyev in 1951[23], and according to others, by the craftsman A. V. Anashchev[13]. In the 1930s, knives were used to assemble a model of Lenin's Mausoleum (97 knives) and a Kremlin tower (143 knives)[24].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mikhail Khvorov | 19th century | A Pavlovo lockmaker from the Khvorov family of craftsmen, who made miniature "makhotny" locks for waistcoat and watch chains — according to P. D. Boborykin, twenty-five of them to a zolotnik. |
| Vasily Yegorovich Tuzhilov | 1920s; lock with a clock — 1923 | In 1923 the Pavlovo craftsman built a music mechanism and a clock into a lock, and in the lock's little window, portraits of Marx, Engels, and Lenin changed as the key was turned. |
| Khrisanf Pavlovich Siverskov | 1930s | A Pavlovo artisan who called himself the "Old Man Artisan" ("Starik-Kustar"), who in the 1930s made figured locks in the shape of a star, an airplane, and a steamship; three of the airplane-shaped locks have survived. |
| Fyodor Dmitriyevich Pchyolkin | studied in Pavlovo until 1891; after 1917, in the Metallist artel | A Pavlovo lockmaker whose lock is on display in the State Historical Museum; after the revolution he worked in the Metallist artel (cooperative workshop). |
| Pavel Kulikov (micro-miniaturist) | works from 1987–2004 | An engraver at the Luch plant who made a 2 mm blacksmith flea in bast shoes out of titanium, silver, and gold, a folding pocketknife half a millimeter long, and a tiny lock threaded through the eye of a needle; his works are shown by the Pavlovo Historical Museum. |
Museums
The main collection is the Pavlovo Historical Museum, housed in the estate of the merchant V. I. Gomulin, built in 1885[14], at 6 Krasnoarmeyskaya Street; the district's knife-making trade is presented by the Knife Museum at 8-a Lunacharsky Lane[23].
Pavlovo-made goods are also held in the capital's museums: the Hermitage has a rifle from 1798 with a walnut stock decorated with gold, as well as Pavlovo and Vorsma knives with sculpted bone handles[3]; the figured padlocks in the Russian Museum entered its collection in 1941, having previously belonged to the collection of M. P. Botkin and been held in the Historical Museum[15].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pavlovo Historical Museum | since 1936 | The museum, housed in the 1885 estate of the merchant V. I. Gomulin, holds more than 42,000 items; its exhibition includes a diorama of a family of lock-making artisans at work, a lock weighing 50 kg, and knife models and micro-miniatures by P. V. Kulikov. |
| Pavlovo Knife Museum | opened July 13, 2019 | About four hundred knives from the collections of the Pavlovo Historical Museum are displayed in three halls — pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and modern — in the oldest surviving house in Pavlovo, built in the mid-18th century. |
| Vorsma Knife Museum ("Vorsma Knife") | since 2021 | The museum opened in 2021 at the Saro folding knife factory in Vorsma, at 41a Zavodskaya Street, and became Vorsma's first cultural center. |
| Vachа Local History Museum | The exhibition of the Vacha Local History Museum at 13 Sovetskaya Street covers the history of the District from the 1st millennium BC and displays products of the Kondratov factory and antique knife wares. | |
| Purekh Local History Museum named after D. M. Pozharsky | The museum is housed in the House of Culture on Purekh's central square; besides a hall devoted to Prince Pozharsky and the Militia, it has an exhibition of Purekh bells. |
Exhibitions, writers, and books about the craft
The trade was tested at exhibitions: the 1889 World's Fair in Paris awarded Vachа knives a large gold medal[6], the 1896 All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod gave a silver medal to Troshin's Purekh bells, and in 1900 Alexey Troshin became the first of Russia's artisan craftsmen to show his wares in Paris[12].
The best-known book about the Pavlovo artisans is Korolenko's "Pavlovo Sketches," published in the journal "Russkaya Mysl"; nearly a third of it is devoted to the buyer-up Dmitry Vasilyevich Duzhkin[16]. The trade is also the subject of V. N. Grigoryev's study "The Artisanal Lock- and Knife-Making Industry of the Pavlovo District" (1881)[2] and V. P. Solomentseva's book "The Pavlovo Knife-Making Industry of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries," published by the Historical Museum in 2018[25].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 | 1896 | At the 1896 exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, the Chinese dignitary Li Hongzhang took a particular interest in the designs of Pavlovo padlocks; the Pavlovo Artisan Cooperative received a large silver medal here, and Aleksey Troshin of Purekh received a silver one. |
| Pavlovo Sketches | 1890 | Sketches by V. G. Korolenko about the metalworking artisans of Pavlovo, written from his trips of 1889–1890 and printed in the journal Russkaya Mysl in 1890; nearly a third of the text is devoted to the buyer-up Dmitry Vasilyevich Duzhkin. |
| Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko | in Pavlovo in 1889–1897 | Korolenko visited Pavlovo several times in 1889–1890 — first in early June 1889, and in the spring of 1890 he lived there from April 22 to May 6 — and he was there again in 1895 and 1897; he went around the workshops, talked with the artisans and buyers-up, and wrote his "Pavlovo Sketches" about it. |
| Melnikov-Pechersky Pavel Ivanovich | Melnikov-Pechersky wrote of Pavlovo wares: almost everyone dines with a Pavlovo knife and fork, mends a pen with a Pavlovo penknife, and locks up their belongings with a Pavlovo padlock. |
Sources
- cyberleninka.ru — CyberLeninka — The Formation and Development of Handicraft Trades in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate in the 16th–19th Centuries
- history.ru — Pavlovo (article from the Great Russian Encyclopedia) (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Craft as Art (archive)
- тоскания.рф — History of the Town of Vorsma (archive)
- tourismnn.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Region: Tourism — The Knife-Making Trade (archive)
- nino52.ru — PAO "Trud" — a Vacha metalworking enterprise (archive)
- nn-tourist.ru — Tourist Portal of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Vacha (archive)
- miz-t.ru — Tumbotino Medical Instrument Plant — About the Company (archive)
- nn-tourist.ru — Tourist Portal of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Sosnovskoye (archive)
- pavlovohistory.ru — History of Our Native Land, the Town of Pavlovo — Pavlovo Knives (archive)
- mybells.ru — Ganulich A. K. On the History of the Production of Harness Bells in Russia (archive)
- rus-istoria.ru — "Russian History" — The Jingle of Sleigh Bells…
- nkj.ru — "Science and Life" — The Hardness of Metal and the Tenderness of a Flower (archive)
- музей-павлово.рф — Pavlovo Historical Museum (municipal autonomous cultural institution) (archive)
- rusmuseumvrm.ru — Virtual Russian Museum — Padlocks. Village of Pavlovo, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. 18th Century (archive)
- ngounb.ru — NGOUNB — "In the Footsteps of V. G. Korolenko's Essays" (literary and local-history hour)
- pavlovohistory.ru — History of Our Native Land, the Town of Pavlovo — Figured Locks of the Village of Pavlovo, 18th–19th Centuries (archive)
- svpressa.ru — "Svobodnaya Pressa" — Master Lock-Makers (archive)
- pavlovohistory.ru — History of Our Native Land, the Town of Pavlovo — Varypaev (archive)
- turlog.ru — Alexander Genrikhovich Stange. Founder of the Artel in the Village of Pavlovo (archive)
- livingheritage.ru — Living Heritage — Pavlovo Knives (archive)
- мехинструмент.орг — History (archive)
- pavlovohistory.ru — History of Our Native Land, the Town of Pavlovo — Unique Things in Pavlovo (archive)
- globeofrussia.ru — "Globus Rossii" — The Museum in Pavlovo-on-the-Oka. Knife Models, Clocks with a Secret, and a Pig for Stalin (archive)
- livelib.ru — Solomentseva V. P. Pavlovo Knife Production in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. From the Collection of the Historical Museum (archive)