Today, December 8, the State Hermitage Museum (Hall № 152 of the Winter Palace) presents "Treasure fabrikantshi Likhachova. It presents a treasure - one of the rarest specimens of historical and everyday items made of silver. Once they belonged to a wealthy family in St. Petersburg, and in 1978 entered the Hermitage collection of articles from precious metals.

May 5, 1978 in a shoe factory "Sunrise" (a branch of the union "Skorokhod") located at 3rd Line Vasilevsky Island in the house 52, was found a cache. It has been more than two hundred items of silver, wrapped in an old rotten cloth and paper, issued in 1917. Engraved inscription, preserved in some silver items, confirm their affiliation Maria Ivanovna Likhachev, owner of Nevskaya Wallpaper Factory, which was located at this address until 1917. Many items were gifts of a factory owner, on the occasion of various anniversaries.

Almost all subjects found the complex made of silver, they represent a diverse set of things. The treasure was in extremely poor conditions for over sixty years, things are much demanded of the restoration, which was carried Laboratory for Scientific Restoration of precious metals, the State Hermitage. After cleaning and restoration of exhibits has been returned to pristine shape, which made it possible to restore an interesting and diverse range of decorative and applied arts, scientific and systematic collection and to understand its artistic value.

hoard includes a set of beverage, commemorative dishes and cups, frames and supports for crystal vases, teapots, milk jugs, sugar bowls, cutlery, salt cellars of various shapes of the Russian masters, silversmiths of the second half of XIX - early XX century. All of them are decorated with a variety of processing techniques of precious metals (gold-plating, engraving, embossing, enamel) and constructed with great skill.

treasure found in the former "Neva Wallpaper Factory" is of great artistic and historical significance. It provides insight into the production factories and craftsmen silverware of St. Petersburg and Moscow (as well as some European ones), allows us to trace the evolution of different stylistic trends in the arts and crafts, as well as evidence of the artistic tastes of the wealthy bourgeoisie of St. Petersburg, to which Maria Ivanovna Likhachev .

exhibition will run until February 13, 2011.

Source: hermitagemuseum.org