The “Birch” set was designed by Valentina Filimonova. In 1954, she graduated from the Glass and Plastic Processing Department at the Leningrad Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Design. From her teachers Boris Smirnov and Fyodor Entelis, Valentina Filimonova learned to love glass and to trust fully in its decorative properties. She designed the “Birch” water set which became one of the best glass products of the 1960s.
The “Birch” water set was created in the minimalist style typical of the 1960s. The motto of this period was “Art into Every House!” It meant that artists were supposed to design simple, easy-to-manufacture objects for mass and large-scale production. In the 1960s, young artists, graduates of the Moscow School of Decorative and Applied Art, came to the Dyatkovo Crystal Factory. The artists who put their ideas into practice at the Dyatkovo Factory included Ye. Batanova, A. Stepanova, V. Filimonova, N. Ganf, Ye. Zhigalkina, G. Antonova, and S. Beskinskaya. They designed prototypes for updating the factory’s mass market and limited-edition product lines: services, vases, tableware made of colored and colorless glass and decorated using enamel and silicate paints, engraving, and diamond-shaped cutting.
The pitcher from the “Birch” set was made of colorless or simple glass using the blowing technique. It is an example of the successful implementation of chemical frosting and painting for decorating such glass. The contrast between the colorless glass and the frosted images of tree trunks imitates a birch grove. Taking into account the transparency of glass, the artist placed the trees in such a way that the trees on the other side of the glass are always seen through the gaps between them. Both the pitcher and the glasses are elongated, depicting thin tree trunks which seem to be striving for the sun.
The “Birch” water set was created for everyday use and consisted of a pitcher and two glasses. According to the 1979 catalog “Glass Houseware and Artware”, the pitcher cost 1 ruble 23 kopecks, and the glass cost 34 kopecks.
The “Birch” water set was created in the minimalist style typical of the 1960s. The motto of this period was “Art into Every House!” It meant that artists were supposed to design simple, easy-to-manufacture objects for mass and large-scale production. In the 1960s, young artists, graduates of the Moscow School of Decorative and Applied Art, came to the Dyatkovo Crystal Factory. The artists who put their ideas into practice at the Dyatkovo Factory included Ye. Batanova, A. Stepanova, V. Filimonova, N. Ganf, Ye. Zhigalkina, G. Antonova, and S. Beskinskaya. They designed prototypes for updating the factory’s mass market and limited-edition product lines: services, vases, tableware made of colored and colorless glass and decorated using enamel and silicate paints, engraving, and diamond-shaped cutting.
The pitcher from the “Birch” set was made of colorless or simple glass using the blowing technique. It is an example of the successful implementation of chemical frosting and painting for decorating such glass. The contrast between the colorless glass and the frosted images of tree trunks imitates a birch grove. Taking into account the transparency of glass, the artist placed the trees in such a way that the trees on the other side of the glass are always seen through the gaps between them. Both the pitcher and the glasses are elongated, depicting thin tree trunks which seem to be striving for the sun.
The “Birch” water set was created for everyday use and consisted of a pitcher and two glasses. According to the 1979 catalog “Glass Houseware and Artware”, the pitcher cost 1 ruble 23 kopecks, and the glass cost 34 kopecks.
