Zlatoust engravings on steel: technology, history

Zlatoust is a small town in the Chelyabinsk region with a population of less than two hundred thousand people. He is well-known to experts in weapons, art and collectors of cold steel in many countries around the world. Glory to the city brought a thin and elegant color engraving on steel, covering metal products of excellent quality. The Tsars, the Secretaries-General of the CPSU Central Committee and the Presidents of the Russian Federation presented the products of the Ural masters with great value to their foreign friends.

Zlatoust engravings adorn the cold weapons and home furnishings and items - caskets, cigarette cases, writing instruments, very often engraving is used in the manufacture of objects of worship - chalices, candlesticks, monsters and icons for icons. Medals, medals, sports cups are also the fruits of engraving.

Cold arms as a matter of prestige

Zlatoust is a city where people know the blades.

Cold weapons are intended to perform two tasks.

The first is convenience when used for its intended purpose. This means that the metal should be easy to grind and correct, long to keep sharp, to be elastic, strong, moderately flexible and not rust. Handle and scabbard - a separate article. In the best examples of weapons, the hilt has curvatures that repeat the anatomical structure of the hand, and is, as it were, a natural extension of the hand. Sheath, respectively, is a continuation of the blade. Correctly calculated and executed, they do not cling to clothing, not too heavy, not tight and do not fall off. Length, shape, bend, plate thickness - everything matters.

The second is prestige. By the way the blade looks, it is customary to judge the dignity of its owner. For this reason, the handle and scabbard for the nobility are adorned with precious stones, gold and silver embossing, drawings and inscriptions.

Zlatoust knives today, as before, meet all the requirements of the standard. Famous award-winning officers' daggers still do in the workshops of a small Urals city.

Manufacture of Zlatoust blades

In the manufacture of any art object, all stages are important. Not an exception and Zlatoust engraving on steel. The technology of production does not represent a secret. In libraries you can find directories on all issues. Compositions of metal alloys, acid formulas for etching and varnishes are also available. The art of engraving is taught in the Zlatoust branch of the Ural State University. Since 1996, anyone can apply for the specialty "Technology of artistic processing of materials."

However, genuine high art is not only a technique. It is no accident that only a small part of the masters work in museums and receive awards at world competitions. Chrysostom has something to be proud of.

Museums of Great Britain and Germany are proud of the collections of metal products that the Zlatoust craftsmen created. What is the secret of such popularity? The fact that local engravers own all the techniques of working with metal, and this is chasing, and notching, and glazing, and blackening, and etching, and electrotype, and taushirovanie. For some time now, stone carving has been added, because from Ural gems there are very beautiful interior objects. Miniature engravings with stone inlay, made with good taste and observance of old traditions, are always in demand. In addition, the history of engraving is the history of a constantly evolving art form. From the very beginning and up to the present time the Ural masters do not cease to study. A piggy bank of artistic metal processing continues to be replenished today.

The emergence of the fishery

In 1754, in the Urals, in the valley of the Ai River, the Highest Decree of His Imperial Majesty was ordered to build an iron-making factory. The town that grew up next to it was named in honor of St. John Chrysostom.

To organize the production in 1815 from Germany, from the factory of Solingen, good engravers were invited - the father and son of Shafa, and three years later the Emperor of the Emperor was able to see the fruits of their activities - the first batch of nineteen blades was delivered to the capital. I liked the work and received the highest approval.

Together with the Shafi and under their leadership, the talented Ural masters mastered the new production. Their names have remained in history as the names of the founders of the whole trend in art, known as color engraving on steel. These are Efim and Ivan Bushuyev, Maxim, Fedor and Peter Telezhnikov, Archip Lepeshkov, Fedor Strizhev, Ivan Boyarshinov and others.

Shafi are adherents of old German traditions. They knew exactly what an ideal engraving should look like. Description of the requirements for the standard would take more than one page. At a minimum, the drawing should resemble the best examples of Solingen masters - be thin, flat and monochrome. For a long time the Shafi did not allow local people to apply their ideas in practice. Patterns on the metal plate Germans were scratched with a needle. Etching was used only as the final stage of treatment. German instruments were distinguished by their hardness and subtlety. The drawings were very small and detailed. The stories were repeated to some extent.

The Germans lived separately in the settlement and did not seek close contact with the local people. They worked properly, were friendly, but at work they held themselves aloof and very reluctantly shared their knowledge.

Zlatoust engravings of that time are easy to recognize for authorship. The figure is placed on a sheath and a handle. The lines are thin, elegant, the drawing is shallow, a great emphasis is on drawing the details.

Features of Russian style

The disciples, in addition to those drawings that Shafov learned, began to depict scenes from the military and peaceful life of their native country, mythological subjects - they were not afraid to show imagination and when choosing engraving techniques. The native nature and fauna of the Urals are also embodied in their drawings. Russian masters have surpassed their teachers in many respects. They learned how to use etching to produce different colors and shades. Changing the composition of the acid and the duration of the chemical reaction, they achieved amazing results. In their hands Zlatoust knives turned into unique works of high art, which are not ashamed to be presented even to kings.

Ivanko-krylatko

The emergence of a unique artistic style is usually associated with the name of Ivan Bushuev. He grew up in a family of hereditary gunsmiths. He studied drawing from his countrymen. In the Urals, steelmaking has been studied for a long time. Demidov factories smelted ore, boiled their own damask steel, and made weapons. By the time the Zlatoust factory was established, the traditions of working with metal were fully formed. Ivan Bushuyev - the most famous name in Zlatoust. He was incredibly talented and hardworking. The Ural master combined knowledge and skills learned from fellow countrymen, with the German style of engraving. He was a genius in terms of decoration. Sam forged blades and put drawings on them. His works are kept in the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin. Pavel Bazhov immortalized the name of the master in the tale "Ivanko-krylatko". The famous winged horse, the symbol of Chrysostom, is a tribute to memory and respect.

Ivan Bushuyev had a very subtle sense of proportion, ideally kept the proportions. His manner is absolutely recognizable. Bushuyevsky characters are not static, like the Germans. In his people, beasts - life, movement. It is no coincidence that the coat of arms of Zlatoust is a golden winged horse that rushes towards the wind. On engravings of Ivan Bushuyev horses are often present. By turning the head, the position of the hull, legs, tail, even ears, it is easy to determine what the animal, represented by the artist, feels. Was the angel driving the hand of the master when he held the needle, scratching the lacquer?

Fiery gilding

Ivan Busuyev did not spare time or energy to create the engraving. He even invented his method of decorating products with gold.

The master knew the technology and was able to make blades at all stages, beginning with the separation of ore. He knew the subtleties of the smelting industry, he knew how to forge metal, make lacquers and mixtures for etching, but most of all Ivan liked the art of engraving. He himself came up with stories, drew them on paper, then reduced to the right size, prepared a plate and applied a drawing to it. Preparation of the product for engraving consisted in thorough polishing and applying the varnish. Then, using an oil torch, the knife or scabbard was covered with a layer of soot. Then the object was clamped in a vise and drew a picture. If everything worked out well, and the plot fit into the narrow space of the product, then it was possible to proceed to the most critical part of the work. Painted on the blackened surface of the drawing master scratched a needle, removing the varnish to the metal. After that, he dissolved gold in mercury and put it in a small suede pouch. The engraved object was heated to a very high temperature and led by this calcite along a heated surface. Mercury evaporated, and liquid gold melted into metal. Cooled down blade or scabbard Bushuyev cleaned of varnish. This is also a difficult operation. It's called etching. Depending on the composition of the acid, a different color shade remained on the metal than the metal base.

The mercury vapor released during heating is very harmful to health. Few of the engravers on hot gold lived to be forty years old. Ivan Bushuev died in 1835. He was 37 years old.

Famous works

The works of Zlatoust masters are of great interest not only from the point of view of art, but also as historical documents. Two blades, made in the first quarter of the 19th century, are preserved. They bear miniature drawings depicting the stages of work that precede the appearance of this subject. This is extraction of ore, and melting of metal, and casting into shape, and forging, and engraving, and delivery to the king, and handing to the hero. Blades are very similar to each other. It can be seen that they were made by masters of one school, but on one we see angel-like babies, and on the other - ordinary adults. An ancient Zlatoust engraving is an antiques, which is very expensive, especially considering that at that time the masters actively worked with gold, silver and precious stones. For the needs of the royal family in the workshops of the Zlatoust factory, various items were regularly ordered, not just weapons. Grand Prince Alexander, the heir of the Russian throne, Ivan Bushuev with a group of comrades made armor like medieval. This unique thing can be seen in one of the halls of the museum of local lore Zlatoust.

Pavel Petrovich Anosov

The engraving of Zlatoust, as a national folk craft of Russia, is largely due to the activities of Pavel Petrovich Anosov. This man has had a huge impact not only on the formation and promotion of unique art, but also on the development of the mining industry of the Urals. A talented person from a wealthy family has achieved everything in his life with his own work and talent, without influential patrons and patronage.

Pavel Anosov early orphaned, and he was taken up by his grandfather, who served as a mechanic at the Izhevsk and Votkinsk plants. That is why, having received a good education in the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps, Pavel Petrovich went to the Zlatoust mountain district. He was in his 22nd year. Starting with the most insignificant position, having passed all the steps of the career ladder, Anosov got to the post of the head of the mining factories of Altai and the governor of Tomsk province. He died in 54 years in the rank of Governor-General of Tomsk. For his not too long life, he managed to raise and develop the metallurgical industry in the territory entrusted to him. He was a mining engineer and chemist, explored the nature of the Urals and made many discoveries about the location of underground mineral deposits.

In 1828, Pavel Petrovich Anosov, then the head of the Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant, received orders from the Mining Department to develop steel, which, by the main characteristics, was not inferior to the best damask and damascus known at the time. The task is arhitrudnaya, for its secrets the oriental armourers have sacredly preserved for many centuries. Nevertheless, after a lot of research and experiments, Pavel Petrovich and his colleagues found an exceptionally successful alloy formula, which later glorified the plant, and at the same time the whole of Russia. Russian Bulat Anosov went to the manufacture of cold steel.

From what Paul Petrovich did, you can recall the following facts, characterizing him as a beautiful person and a good master.

• Anosov achieved a ban on mercury gilding, because it is very harmful to health, and replaced it with galvanic.
• He himself designed machines to facilitate the work of workers.
• During his leadership of the workers of the Zlatoust factory, two paid holidays were provided each year - one before Easter and the second in summer, during the tribulation.

• Pavel Petrovich achieved the opening of educational institutions for the children of workers. He set up allowances for boys under 12 and for girls up to 18.
• On his initiative, work on the study of the properties of metals began to be conducted in an orderly manner, with records of the results of research and experiments. Prior to it, the production of metal for blades was a matter of intuition and passed from master to master verbally. Pavel Anosov himself wrote and published several manuals on mining, including metal quenching, alloy steel and the production of bulat.

Bulat was good in all respects and was not inferior to the best world standards. Daggers, regular piercing-cutting weapons, axes, hunting daggers and knives from him are still objects of high art. Their antiquarian value exceeds hundreds of thousands of rubles. The moiré overflow of damascus is beautiful, like a precious metal. Artists Anosov did not even make paintings on it, only near the base. Ample miniature ornaments were applied to the handles and scabbards.

In 1847 the epoch of P.P. Anosov ended. He went to St. Petersburg with a collection of daggers, hunting knives, caskets, cutlery with handles encrusted with Ural gems, mirrors and trays. Pavel P. hoped to show these things to high-ranking officials and get permission to expand production, but on the way got into a snow storm. The cart turned over, it was crushed with heavy companion boxes and covered with snow. They remained for several days at the mercy of a cruel element without hope of salvation. As a result, Anosov seriously ill. He could not recover and in the spring of 1851 he died.

Pavel Matveyevich Obukhov

Almost 15 years Zlatoust factories remained without competent leadership. In the mid-sixties Pavel Matveevich Obukhov was appointed to the position of manager. He managed to get the company out of the crisis. Pavel Matveyevich was from the family of hereditary miners. He received an engineering education at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, graduating with a gold medal, then probation in Germany and Belgium, as a result of which he acquired good managerial and managerial skills. In Zlatoust, he resumed the production process, put in order the extensive scientific heritage left by Anosov and continued his experiments on alloying steel. Pavel Matveyevich deserves credit for the creation of cast steel. It replaced the gun bronze, and now Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant has become a major supplier of firearms - guns and guns.

Art workshops also did not stand idle. If Anosov in recent years produced predominantly damask steel and blades, then Obukhov expanded the capacity and added a large assortment of household items - caskets, cigarette cases, trays, cutlery. By the way, Pavel Matveyevich Obukhov at the enterprise entrusted to his care not only carried out his own ideas for improving work, but also developed and implemented the ideas of Pavel Petrovich Anosov, preserved in the records.

The Soviet period

After 1917 the Zlatoust factory continued to work. Now cold steel was adorned with revolutionary plots and portraits of the leaders of the Communist Party. The place of the refined classicism was taken by the crude modernity. Emphasis began to be made on the issue of mass production. The method of screen printing was introduced. The author's style has practically disappeared. Color engraving grew in size and turned into a panel. Products of Zlatoust craftsmen were adorned with walls of state institutions. The new technology for galvanic deposition of nickel has changed the Zlatoust engravings beyond recognition. The drawings became less clear, blurred, the emphasis was on the play of light and shadow. It was not so much engraving as painting.

Setkografiya allowed to produce large batches of identical panels. Artists transferred to them reproductions of popular paintings by famous authors. Huge portraits of Lenin and Stalin adorned the facades of government institutions. For a while, creative thought gave way to mechanical work.

In the 1960s, interest in the national crafts revived again. The vocational and art schools began to open. The engraving of Zlatoust has received an impetus for a new development. Young graduates of schools, having received the education of artists-engravers, came to the plant and in the shops that produced household items, they revealed their talents. During these years, the names of such fine artists as G. Bersenev, A. Bogachev, N. Lokhtacheva, O. Averkin, and others began to sound.

Nowadays

Today you can hear the opinion that over the past hundred years Zlatoust engravings as a kind of national arts and crafts have lost relevance. I do not want to agree with this. Zlatoust engraving (the history of the famous fishery confirms this) throughout the entire period of its existence has constantly changed. At first, she was laconic in form and realistic drawings, inherited from the Germans from Solingen, then Russian masters added gilding and other decorative techniques, enriched plots. Further, in the 20th century, engraving took the ideas of mass art and absorbed new modern styles.

The first hundred years left us only a few names of outstanding artists. Their work can be recognized by handwriting - I. N. Bushuev drew miniatures on the themes of myths and military battles. IP Boyarshinov liked to work on hunting knives. He engraved hunting scenes on them.

Over the next hundred years, the type of engraving on metal changed in the same way that social life and human needs changed. What is called kitsch and consumer goods is a natural result of the victory of the proletarian revolution, which equalized all and guaranteed to provide everyone with everything necessary. The pursuit of the mass character and the socialization of art led to the fact that the decorative component of the Zlatoust engraving was fairly impoverished. At present, the art of engraving on metal again acquires a tinge of elitism. Outstanding masters are, but they, as always, can be counted on the fingers. Real high art can not die, but it can not stand still - it will always be a breeding ground for identifying talented people and for the birth of new kinds of art.