The first gingerbread cookies appeared in Russia around the 9th century. They were baked from rye flour mixed with lots of honey and berry juice and called ‘honey bread’. Later, forest herbs and roots were added to ‘honey bread’, and with the spread of oriental spices brought from India and the Middle East — cloves, anise, ginger, cinnamon and other spices. Since the 15th century, gingerbread have become an integral part of Russian national culture and were present in all spheres of life: everyday life, festivals and fairs, festivities, and folklore.
For the preparation of gingerbread, special gingerbread boards were used, with their help bakers prepared printed gingerbread with a relief or graphic image.
Gingerbread boards were not only carved for home use, but also for sale at fairs. Some gingerbread boards were for daily use, others were made specifically for special events, annual celebrations and weddings.
Gingerbread boards’ manufacturing technology was quite complicated. The master had to observe the clarity of the lines and achieve uniformity of relief changes on the decorated. At first, the master outlined the drawing, then cut through the contour lines of all its details, after which work began on deepening the relief. Small boards were often decorated with geometric patterns characteristic of folk art: squares, rhombuses, circles.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the “Chambers of carvings and carpentry” of the Moscow Armory were closed, and the main center of mass production of gingerbread boards shifted to the craft centers of the Volga region. Gradually, the attitude towards gingerbread changed, ritualism and strict confinement to certain celebrations faded into the background. Gingerbread became just a treat and a pleasant gift. In the 18th-19th centuries, more varied subjects began to be depicted on gingerbread boards. Carvers turned to popular prints, book illustrations, and repeated the images used on decorative stove tiles. After the Patriotic War of 1812, motifs with the figures of officers with sabers, in triangular hats, with St. George’s crosses appeared.
For the preparation of gingerbread, special gingerbread boards were used, with their help bakers prepared printed gingerbread with a relief or graphic image.
Gingerbread boards were not only carved for home use, but also for sale at fairs. Some gingerbread boards were for daily use, others were made specifically for special events, annual celebrations and weddings.
Gingerbread boards’ manufacturing technology was quite complicated. The master had to observe the clarity of the lines and achieve uniformity of relief changes on the decorated. At first, the master outlined the drawing, then cut through the contour lines of all its details, after which work began on deepening the relief. Small boards were often decorated with geometric patterns characteristic of folk art: squares, rhombuses, circles.
Commonly they depicted animals: horses, birds, sirin birds, leopards, lions — or, for example, flowers and leaves. In their composition such boards resembled the drawings of ancient Russian ceramic tiles.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the “Chambers of carvings and carpentry” of the Moscow Armory were closed, and the main center of mass production of gingerbread boards shifted to the craft centers of the Volga region. Gradually, the attitude towards gingerbread changed, ritualism and strict confinement to certain celebrations faded into the background. Gingerbread became just a treat and a pleasant gift. In the 18th-19th centuries, more varied subjects began to be depicted on gingerbread boards. Carvers turned to popular prints, book illustrations, and repeated the images used on decorative stove tiles. After the Patriotic War of 1812, motifs with the figures of officers with sabers, in triangular hats, with St. George’s crosses appeared.
