The encyclopedic dictionary of Friedrich Brockhaus and Ilya Efron indicated that these words were used differently in different regions: “tueski” was spoken in the Perm province, “tuesi” —in the north-eastern provinces, “tuyasi” —in Olonets, “tuziki” —in Ryazan; this dictionary did not comment on the word “burak”.
A modern researcher of northern crafts Alexander Shutikhin notes that in the dictionary of the Russian literary language, the word “burak” is positioned as a derivative of the Swedish “bark”, that is, “jar, box”.
The tues was a small cylindrical pot with a wooden bottom and a flat wooden lid. Its base was made of several layers of birchbark. Such a pot did not allow water to pass through, and since the birchbark had an antifungal and bactericidal effect, even milk, sour cream, and cottage cheese could be stored in the tues.
Tues were mainly made in the northern and northeastern provinces and sold to the central regions. They were decorated with an embossed pattern or painted on the sides, and sometimes left without an ornament. In the 19th century, the Verkhneuftyug painting was popular. The center of this trade was Novo-Andreevskaya village. The main motifs of local artisans were images of birds and branches.
The tues presented in the exhibition was made in the 18—early 19th century. It is decorated with paintings typical of the Severodvinsk peasant school. Researchers suggest that the Oryol merchants brought it along the Oka-Volga trade route from the northern regions. The good preservation of the painting indicates that the tues was used not as household utensils, but as a decorative element of the interior.
