The second half of the 19th century was marked by the advent of fine-art photography, a rapidly evolving trendy innovation. The tradition of collecting family photos for albums was a newborn one, and the albums were among customary gifts to high-ranking officials. Prince Sergei Golitsyn was presented with this album by his ‘grateful servants’ in 1880, as stated in the enamel caption on the cover.
Golitsyn’s photo album is a Russian jewellery artefact. The casing was crafted at PAvel OvchInnikov Moscow Factory of Gold and Silver Items which was among the largest jewellery companies in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. The both covers are silver-cased and laid over with ebony wood. The front cover is adorned with enamel painting. The front endpaper is lined with moiré [mwa: ] (a kind of silk fabric), and the edge is gilded.
OvchInnikov Factory was notable for its enamels. It was the craftspeople from this company who revived the ancient filigree enamel technique where thin wires, mostly silver ones, were used to partition an image and then enamel is put between such ‘partitions’. The technique was used to make the pattern on the front cover of the album.
Prince Sergei Golitsyn, one of the five owners of the UsOlye salt fields, was one of the richest people in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The prince family stemmed from the Stroganov on his mother side, and Golitsyn inherited the estates of his ancestors. His Urals assets were huge: besides the LEnvinsky saltworks, he owned the NYtvinsky ironworks, copper works with a country estate on 116,302 tithings of land (190,596 hectares), and the ArkhAngelo-PashIysky cast iron works. Also, the prince was one of the founders of the ChusovskOy metals smelter.
Golitsyn’s album is not only a work of applied art, but also a historical record of the last quarter of the 19th century. The first photographs depicted the prince’s Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod mansions followed by the views of the Kama region mining assets: the Golitsyn’ estates in Nytva and PashIya, the picturesque mountain banks of the ChusovAya and Ust-Vilva rivers, the ChusovskOy smelter under construction, NOvoye UsOlye village, and LEnva salt fields. The album ends with a composition of oval-shaped portraits of the prince’s servants. All 88 images in the album are glued to the cardboard sheets covered with white paper.
Golitsyn’s photo album is a Russian jewellery artefact. The casing was crafted at PAvel OvchInnikov Moscow Factory of Gold and Silver Items which was among the largest jewellery companies in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. The both covers are silver-cased and laid over with ebony wood. The front cover is adorned with enamel painting. The front endpaper is lined with moiré [mwa: ] (a kind of silk fabric), and the edge is gilded.
OvchInnikov Factory was notable for its enamels. It was the craftspeople from this company who revived the ancient filigree enamel technique where thin wires, mostly silver ones, were used to partition an image and then enamel is put between such ‘partitions’. The technique was used to make the pattern on the front cover of the album.
Prince Sergei Golitsyn, one of the five owners of the UsOlye salt fields, was one of the richest people in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The prince family stemmed from the Stroganov on his mother side, and Golitsyn inherited the estates of his ancestors. His Urals assets were huge: besides the LEnvinsky saltworks, he owned the NYtvinsky ironworks, copper works with a country estate on 116,302 tithings of land (190,596 hectares), and the ArkhAngelo-PashIysky cast iron works. Also, the prince was one of the founders of the ChusovskOy metals smelter.
Golitsyn’s album is not only a work of applied art, but also a historical record of the last quarter of the 19th century. The first photographs depicted the prince’s Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod mansions followed by the views of the Kama region mining assets: the Golitsyn’ estates in Nytva and PashIya, the picturesque mountain banks of the ChusovAya and Ust-Vilva rivers, the ChusovskOy smelter under construction, NOvoye UsOlye village, and LEnva salt fields. The album ends with a composition of oval-shaped portraits of the prince’s servants. All 88 images in the album are glued to the cardboard sheets covered with white paper.
