A rouse is a vessel for drinking strong drinks, sometimes with a tray or a spherical stalk. A vessel of small size is called a little rouse. Rouses decorated with niello, enamel or calking were common in Russia in the 17th-18th centuries.

One of the famous rouse of the 18th century is considered to be a rouse, which was personally carved by Peter I from a walnut wart – an outgrowth on a tree. The Emperor gave it to the commandant of Moscow, Lord Matvey Gagarin, who later became the Siberian Governor. Lord Matvey Petrovich was awarded for organizing celebrations in Moscow to commemorate the victory of the Russian weapons at Poltava in 1709.

The rouse had a special significance in the army and navy of the Russian Empire. Peter the Great had bequeathed that every day a Russian sailor is entitled to a legitimate rouse of wine at the price of three and a half kopecks. It was believed that vodka and wine help to recover as soon as possible. From the decree of Peter the Great:

The wine was not usually given to sailors every day, but four rouses a week: on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. And those who didn’t drink were paid nine kopecks a month for each undrunk rouse.

Before drinking a rouse, the sailors took off their caps, made the sign of the cross, and then bowed and passed the vessel in turn. Sailors weren’t supposed to bite or drink after a rouse. Emperor Nicholas II cancelled the naval rouse.

The rouse presented in the exhibition was made by the silversmith Andrey Kovalsky. It’s shaped like a cylinder, on the body of which there are light black garlands of leaves on a gilded chased (decorated with small lines and strokes) background, which makes it a sample of blackened products of the 18th–19th centuries.

Such a blackening drawing technique was especially popular in the 18th century. The crushed niello was applied to the engraved surface of the metal, the object was burned, and then a black or dark gray pattern was developed on it.

In the North, Veliky Ustyug was the center of production of silver products with niello. The elegant and diverse shape of the objects, their magnificent mounting put jewelry of Veliky Ustyug first.