Imperial Glass Factory

Glass production began in Russia during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich , who granted "cannon craftsman to master" Elisha Koyet, a Swede in the Russian service, a plot of land near Moscow for the construction of a factory manufacturing pharmaceutical glass. Under Alexei Mikhailovich and Peter the Great, glasswork went uphill, and at the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. In Moscow there were several factories that produced window glass, mirrors, and glassware. In the Yamburg conquered from the Swedes, there were also two glass factories, which were transferred by Peter A.D. Menshikov and where was transferred part of the workers from Moscow factories. In 1730, the Yamburg glass factories were bought into the treasury and transferred to concession by the British merchant William Elmsel, who later founded his own glass factories on the Lava River, near the village of Nazya near Lake Ladoga, and in St. Petersburg on the Fontanka River in the quarter bounded by the Vvedensky Canal and Semenovsky Ave. (now Gorokhovaya St.).

In 1738, the Petersburg and Yamburg state-owned glass factories were transferred to the Office of the Chancellery. The first glass enterprise of the new capital is expanding significantly, with it there are three furnaces for boiling matter . In the late 1740s and early 1750s, the Governing Senate prohibited the construction of glass factories within 200 miles of Moscow and St. Petersburg and by decree of 1755 ordered the St. Petersburg glass factory to be moved back to Yamburg. In St. Petersburg, a part of the factory was preserved, which mainly performed grinding, polishing and engraving of products cast in Yamburg. The factory on the Fontanka worked until 1774. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}

With the closure of the first glass production in St. Petersburg, a glass factory for the needs of the Court became a glass factory in the village of Nazya, Shlisselburg Uyezd , in 1777 granted by Catherine II to the eternal and hereditary possession of Prince G. Potemkin . In 1779, Potemkin transferred the glass factory to his capital’s possessions, to the Ozerki estate south of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (in the area of ​​the modern Obukhov Defense Ave. ). After the death of the prince, the factory was bought back by Catherine II into the treasury and named the Imperial Glass Factory, in which there was a separate mirror workshop. Since that time, the plant was under common control with the Imperial Porcelain Factory, which was under the jurisdiction of Prince NB Yusupova . ^{[6] [7] [8]}

Being a state-owned enterprise, the plant was heavily burdened with orders for the needs of the imperial court, which did not allow it to compete with more successful private glass factories focused on the production of mass products. They tried to correct the difficult financial situation of the enterprise by the division (1844, 1867) and its reverse merger (1848, 1867) with the Imperial Porcelain Factory, the closure of the mirror workshop (1852) and a number of internal reorganizations. The abolition of serfdom in 1861 negatively affected the position of the plant, which used the labor of the official peasants assigned to it, in 1861. An attempt to sell the plant in private hands (1862) was unsuccessful. Despite some improvement of the factory’s affairs by the efforts of its director V. Knipper (1864-1890), during the second half of the XIX century. the plant remained a burden for the treasury and in 1890 was finally merged with the Imperial Porcelain Factory. An independent glass department at the Imperial Porcelain Factory existed until 1917. ^[9]

The imperial glass factory produced high-quality art products , including utensils and decorative elements . A large part of his creations were monumental and formed the official line in Russian decorative art . In 1910, a dome made of thick polished glass was made at the Glass Factory for the palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich on Petrovskaya Embankment . Outstanding architects Tom de Tomon , K. Rossi , A. Voronikhin , V. Stasov were involved in the design of piece glass products; M. Lomonosov was engaged in the preparation of stained glass; I. Kulibin was engaged in the manufacture of large-format mirrors. ^[ten]

Since the second quarter of the XIX century. the plant was engaged in the manufacture of colored mosaics and stained-glass windows , had its own laboratory for the preparation of dyes of almost any color: in the factory register there were more than 20,000 shades of smalt . The first order for stained glass was allegedly associated with the construction of the Gothic chapel (the church of St. Alexander Nevsky) on the territory of the estate of Alexandria in Peterhof , donated by Nicholas I to his wife. The pioneer of stained glass in Russia was a drawing teacher at the glass factory, A.F. Pernits . The art products of the plant were invariably a great success at Russian and foreign exhibitions. ^{[11] [12]}

Until the end of the XVIII century. objects from colorless glass were made using potash , later it was possible to master the recipe for lead crystal , which had great transparency and purity. The plant mastered painting in gold , silver , enamel paints, painting with metal paints, engraving and etching of drawings, relief carving and faceting . Part of the plant’s products was sent as a gift from Russian emperors to European monarchs and aristocracy. The plant also sold its products to private individuals through its own store (until 1856) and several merchant shops, as well as participating in all-Russian fairs . Since the 1860s, the plant began to produce dishes from cheaper soda-lime glass, which allowed it to slightly increase sales to private customers and improve its financial situation. Since 1906, the graphic and grinding workshops of the Porcelain and Glassworks were directed by graphic artist R. T. Wilde ^{[13] [14]} .

Currently, the collection of works of the Imperial Glass Factory is exhibited in the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory and in the State Hermitage Museum, which has published a book on the history and works of the factory. ^{[15] [16]}

The territory of the Imperial Glass Factory with factory shops, houses for workers and a church built near it in the name of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” ( Sorrowful Church ) was called the Glass Town . The glass factory became an art attraction of St. Petersburg, it was included in the first guidebooks in the capital and recommended for a visit. After the transfer of glass production to the Imperial Porcelain Factory, the Glass Town was to be rebuilt in a new urban area, planned according to a radial-concentric scheme. The streets were called respectively: Crystal , Faience , Clay , Glaze , Mirror Lane . Glaziers did not leave the town permanently, near the former buildings of the Imperial Glass Factory, on ul. Dyominskaya in 1911 Mirror workshops of the Petrograd Glass Industrial Society were founded, nationalized in 1920. In the post-revolutionary time, the Dyominskaya (Leningrad) mirror factory (1924) was created on their basis, and later the Leningrad Art Glass Plant (1940) was founded appearance chemist N. Kachalov , sculptor V. Mukhina and writer A. Tolstoy . ^{[17] [18]}

In Soviet times , residential buildings in the style of Stalin's neoclassicism , buildings of industrial enterprises and institutions were built on the territory of the plant, and the Deminsky Garden was broken. In 2008, the preserved building of the Imperial Glass Factory (11B Obukhovskaya Ave., pr.) Was sold to an investor who was planning to build a nine-story business center in its place and to build up part of the Deminsky Square. As a result of the active actions of St. Petersburg city ​​defenders, the contract with the investor was terminated, and the factory building was restored in its original form by another investor opening a hotel in a historical building. The start of work on putting the Deminsky Garden in order is expected in 2020. ^{[19] [20]}

• Glass town
• Imperial Porcelain Factory

• Malinina T.A. , Imperial Glass Factory. XVIII - beginning of the twentieth century - St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the State Hermitage Museum, 2009
• Gollerbach E. History of the State Porcelain Factory ... // Russian Art Porcelain. - Leningrad: State Publishing House, 1924. - S. 9-16 .
• Imperial Porcelain Factory. 1744-1904 . - SPb. , 1906.

• Photo gallery of HIS products at the site of the Russian Crystal factory