In 1908, entrepreneur Vasily Semyonovich Krestyaninov founded a copper rolling factory in Mstyora. In 1925, it was transformed into a metalworking artel, which produced foil, certain types of household tools and brass utensils. Before the Second World War, the factory also released stamped spoons, compact boxes, cup holders and jewelry items made of non-ferrous metals and decorated with filigree.

Filigree is a complex technique that requires meticulous handwork, patience and precision. It entails working with copper or silver wires that are twisted and arranged to form a pattern. The Mstyora style of filigree has been forming for several decades. It is distinguished by a fine floral and geometric ornament, where every detail repeats and emphasizes the shape of the product.

In the 1950s, a special department of artists and craftspeople was formed at the factory. It was tasked with developing a new direction in the manufacture of art jewelry made of nickel silver with embossing and engraving, as well as filigree items, using gilding, silvering and oxidizing (antiquing) techniques. In the early 1960s, the artel was transformed into the factory “Jeweler”.

The Mstyora style is characterized by a free arrangement of the details in the pattern, as well as transitions from dense openwork to sparse. It makes the products look light and elegant. To decorate the products of the Mstyora Jewelry Factory, silvering or gilding is almost always used, followed by polishing or matting the metal surface.

The copper gilded vase “Souvenir” is made in the shape of a flower cup with twelve elegant petals on a low brass bottom. The repeating filigree pattern of petals forms a rosette on a long stem with leaves resembling a magnificent peacock tail. The item is made according to the drawing of Kapitolina Alekseyevna Panilova.

Kapitolina Panilova, a specialist in artistic metalworking, was born in 1927 near Mstyora, in the town of Melenki. She graduated from the Krasnoselsky College of Artistic Metalworking (1948–1951) and worked at the “Jeweler” factory as an artist (1951–1957) and senior master of the filigree workshop (1957–1983).