Art and hand crafts from Russia have been a
specialty of this gallery since 1985.
We still have matryoshka dolls (nesting
dolls) which are marked "made in USSR" from this time period. These are
a joyful and very inexpensive collectible. Besides this early form of
the matryoshka, we also have dedicated ourselves to search out and discover
new, talented artists, who bring their creativity and beauty to this art
medium.
Some of these artists also create our
hand-carved and painted Grandfather Frost sculptures. Grandfather Frost
is the Russian Santa Claus.
Other artists create papier mache'
boxes which are egg tempera or oil painted with a single hair paint brush.
This art began in Fedoskino, Russia in 1795 as small oil painted snuff boxes.
The paintings from this time period often depicted flower arrangements, scenic
landscapes, portraits of wealthy patrons or country villagers in their daily
life. When the communists took over Russia, religious expression
including icon painting was banned so many of the artists from the icon
centers of Palekh, Mstera, and Kholui borrowed the papier mache' box idea from
Fedoskino and began painting fairy tales on their boxes with egg tempera
paints.
One of the five artists from Palekh, Russia
who formed the modern box painting school there was an artist by the name of
Alexander Kotukhin. His grandson, named after him, has returned to the
family roots of icon painting. We feature some of Kotukhin's miniature
icon paintings. Enameled (finift) icons, boxes and jewelry by other
artists and craftsmen are also highlighted.
The year Catherine-the-Great arrived
in Russia is the year D. Vinogradov discovered the secret of making porcelain
using Gzhel clays and Olonets quartz and alabaster. The Imperial
Porcelain Manufactory (later renamed Lomonosov Porcelain) was established
later that year. It was the first porcelain factory in Russia and only
the third in all of Europe. The porcelain animal figurines and tea sets
are widely collected.
This gallery also includes Bohemian
cased-crystal which is perhaps the best cut crystal in the world. We
also feature lithophanes, which are porcelain images made as night lights,
light stands and lamps.
We also hope you enjoy the classic
landscape black and white photography from the Rocky Mountains by gallery
owner, Craig Hendee. These silver gelatin archival prints are made to
last centuries.
We hope you enjoy this web site; but, want
you to know that we also have an existing physical location as well in Estes
Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Stop in and
see us when you are in town, as we offer so much more than we can show
here.