Yevgeny Boratynskiy met Alexander Pushkin in 1818 in Petersburg. According to the Boratynskiy family legend, Pushkin worked at the table from the museum’s collection when his was staying in Kazan in September 1833. Boratynskiy offered him a place in the house of his father-in-law Lev Engelhardt. According to the legend, Pushkin opted for this table when he decided to write down in his road notebook the story of the Kazan cloth-maker Vasily Babin, about the capture of the city by the rebel troops of Yemelyan Pugachev.
A scrutoire is a multi-functional piece of furniture. It is used for writing, storing papers and writing utensils. The museum displays a scrutoire with a folding desktop covered in green fabric, drawers and a shelf with secret compartments hidden behind sliding doors.
This type of furniture appeared in the second half of the 18th century and was originally intended for ladies, as it combined the functions of a writing desk and a dressing table. They called it bureau bonheur-du-jour or ‘bureau happy day’, because the ladies of the fete gallant hid in its hiding tokens of affection or mail that filled their days with happiness.
The table is decorated with a mosaic made in the technique of marquetry: thin veneers of fine wood are assembled in a separate pattern and are affixed on the base. The bureau itself consists of two parts. The bottom one is a table with a double flip-top and a drawer. The upper one comprises a cabinet with sliding foldable flanges, inside which there are secret compartments to the right and to the left - two containers in which three retractable boxes are arranged vertically.
The poet’s letter to his wife was also preserved: ‘Here I was being busy with oldsters, contemporaries of my hero; went around the city, inspected the battlefields, questioned, recorded and am very pleased that I did not visit this region in vain’.
A scrutoire is a multi-functional piece of furniture. It is used for writing, storing papers and writing utensils. The museum displays a scrutoire with a folding desktop covered in green fabric, drawers and a shelf with secret compartments hidden behind sliding doors.
This type of furniture appeared in the second half of the 18th century and was originally intended for ladies, as it combined the functions of a writing desk and a dressing table. They called it bureau bonheur-du-jour or ‘bureau happy day’, because the ladies of the fete gallant hid in its hiding tokens of affection or mail that filled their days with happiness.
The table is decorated with a mosaic made in the technique of marquetry: thin veneers of fine wood are assembled in a separate pattern and are affixed on the base. The bureau itself consists of two parts. The bottom one is a table with a double flip-top and a drawer. The upper one comprises a cabinet with sliding foldable flanges, inside which there are secret compartments to the right and to the left - two containers in which three retractable boxes are arranged vertically.
