The paperweight from the museum’s collection belonged to the family of Anton Chekhov’s nephew Sergey between the 1930s and 1960s. The writer did not use the paperweight; it was donated to the museum by Valentina Chekhova, the widow of Sergey Chekhov.

A paperweight was an essential part of 19th-century writing sets and inkstands. Such sets were made of metal, wood, or stone and decorated with amber, gilding, and elegant figures. Apart from paperweights, they typically included a pen and pencil holder, a pen wiper, an ashtray, a matchbox, and a box of paper clips. The inkstands not only contained writing tools used for work but also served as a decoration of the desk and emphasized the owner’s status.

The Russian word for “a paperweight” originated from the French “presse-papiers”, which means “to press” and “a paper”. There are two types of paperweights: a rocker blotter for absorbing superficial ink and a heavy paperweight. A rocker blotter is an arched block with a handle and a sheet of blotting paper attached at the bottom. It was rolled over a sheet of paper with recently written text.

The second type of paperweight looks like a solid block of marble or another semi-precious stone. The upper part is decorated with stone or metal figurines or monograms. Such a paperweight was used for fixing business papers and letters on the desk.

Anton Chekhov had his first study in a two-story house on Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street in 1886. Before that, the Chekhovs had lived in poverty and rented small semi-basement apartments. The writer’s study was furnished in a minimalistic manner, but it reflected his taste and charm. The walls were covered with dark olive wallpaper — a soothing color to rest the writer’s weak eyes.

Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik, an acquaintance of Anton Chekhov, recalled,