{"product_id":"russian-khokhloma-lacquered-wooden-dish-gold-ground-with-strawberries-and-rowan-over-black-turned-and-hand-painted-c-1960-1985","title":"Russian Khokhloma Lacquered Wooden Dish, Gold Ground with Strawberries and Rowan over Black, Turned and Hand-Painted, c. 1960–1985","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small turned wooden dish in the Russian \u003cstrong\u003eKhokhloma\u003c\/strong\u003e tradition, painted and lacquered in gold, red and black.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe form is a round bowl on a \u003cstrong\u003ered-painted foot ring\u003c\/strong\u003e, with the rim \u003cstrong\u003enotched on two sides\u003c\/strong\u003e — squared cuts taken down into the wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe outside is the showpiece. A \u003cstrong\u003eblack ground\u003c\/strong\u003e carries \u003cstrong\u003elarge gold leaves\u003c\/strong\u003e, each veined with fine black comb strokes, twined with \u003cstrong\u003escarlet strawberries\u003c\/strong\u003e, red rowan berries and trails of small gold dots. The painting runs the whole way round without a repeat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside, the wall is \u003cstrong\u003eplain amber gold\u003c\/strong\u003e, with a single painted roundel of the same fruit and foliage in the well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnderneath, the foot is finished in \u003cstrong\u003eflat black\u003c\/strong\u003e. The whole piece is under a warm lacquer that gives the gold its depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThere is no gold in Khokhloma, and that is the entire craft.\u003c\/strong\u003e The tradition began in the second half of the \u003cstrong\u003eseventeenth century\u003c\/strong\u003e in a village of that name in the Nizhny Novgorod region on the Volga, where \u003cstrong\u003eOld Believers\u003c\/strong\u003e fleeing religious persecution brought icon-painting technique to local woodturners and taught them how to paint wood gold without using any.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe method is a sequence and every step matters.\u003c\/strong\u003e The turned piece is coated in drying oil; \u003cstrong\u003emetal powder — tin originally, later aluminium — is laid over it\u003c\/strong\u003e, so the wood comes up silver; heat-resistant oil paints go on over that; then lacquer; then the piece goes into an oven. In the heat \u003cstrong\u003ethe lacquer ambers, and the silver beneath it reads as gold\u003c\/strong\u003e. A silver bowl goes into the kiln and a gold one comes out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe palette is fixed and the reason is practical.\u003c\/strong\u003e Red, black and gold, because those were the pigments that survived the firing. Everything else burned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTwo ways of working, and this piece uses both.\u003c\/strong\u003e Superficial painting puts red and black over the gold; background painting leaves gold silhouettes standing in a coloured field. The outside of this dish is the second kind — gold leaves reserved out of black — and the inside is the first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe twentieth century industrialised it without killing it.\u003c\/strong\u003e Painters organised into artels through the 1920s and 30s, and by the \u003cstrong\u003e1960s\u003c\/strong\u003e two large factories were working — one near the original village and one at Semyonov — turning out tableware, utensils and souvenirs. Khokhloma became one of the most recognisable Russian exports of the Soviet period, which is how pieces like this reached American houses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dish carries \u003cstrong\u003eno factory mark or paper label\u003c\/strong\u003e and is offered \u003cstrong\u003eunattributed\u003c\/strong\u003e. Dated on the aluminium-and-lacquer gold, the hand painting, and the Soviet-era factory output that put this ware into export: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1960–1985\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSmall turned and lacquered wooden dish in the Khokhloma tradition, with two squared notches to the rim. Approx. 4½ in across and 2½ in high.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eRussia, Nizhny Novgorod region. Workshop not identified; offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTurned round bowl on a raised foot ring, the rim cut with two opposed squared notches\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eExterior: gold leaves veined in black comb strokes with scarlet strawberries, rowan berries and gold dot trails, reserved against a black ground. Interior: plain amber gold with a painted roundel of the same fruit and foliage. Red-painted foot, black underside.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eTurned wood with drying oil, metal powder, heat-resistant oil paints and oven-cured lacquer — the gold effect produced by the lacquer ambering over the metal, with no gold present\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNone. No factory stamp or paper label. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1960–1985. Dated on the aluminium-powder-and-lacquer gold, the hand painting, and the Soviet-period factory production that supplied the export trade.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good. The dish is sound with no cracks, splits or repairs, it sits level, and the painting is bright with the gold deep and unclouded. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect light wear to the lacquer on the rim and notch edges\u003c\/strong\u003e, where a small area shows the pale wood beneath, along with minor surface marks and light scuffing to the black underside. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlmost nothing in a normal house is this colour, and that is exactly why it works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScarlet, black and deep amber gold is a palette with no modern equivalent — it is not warm neutral, it is not muted, it is not tasteful in the current sense. Set it on a plain wooden shelf, a white mantel or a dark side table and it does the job a single strong object should do: it stops the eye and it makes everything around it look deliberate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt four and a half inches it lands anywhere. A bedside table for rings and a watch, a desk for clips and stamps, a hall table for keys, a bathroom shelf for cotton buds. The notched rim gives it a silhouette that a plain bowl does not have, and it reads as a shape even from across a room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story is the other half of the value. It is worth knowing that the gold is not gold — that somebody laid metal powder over oiled wood, painted it, lacquered it and put it in an oven, and the heat turned silver into gold. That is a genuinely clever piece of craft, three and a half centuries old, and it is the kind of thing people pick an object up to hear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt also groups. Khokhloma was made in vast quantity and variety, so a single dish is the start of a shelf of spoons, bowls and beakers in the same three colours if you want one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and lacquer over wood has clear limits. \u003cstrong\u003eKeep it dry and never soak it.\u003c\/strong\u003e Water works under lacquer at the edges and lifts it, and once it lifts it flakes. Wipe with a barely damp cloth and dry immediately.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNever put it in a dishwasher or a microwave\u003c\/strong\u003e, and do not use it for hot or oily food — heat softens the lacquer and oil penetrates it. Traditional Khokhloma tableware was used for dry and cool food; treat this as a dry dish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDo not polish it and do not use any solvent\u003c\/strong\u003e, including alcohol wipes, which will take the paint off along with the dirt. A dry cloth is the whole routine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKeep it out of direct sunlight, which fades the reds and clouds the lacquer, and away from radiators and fireplaces — turned wood under lacquer splits when it dries out too fast.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48047024275561,"sku":"VE-0737","price":68.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/0D196E4F-73B7-4D2B-B9E9-D6FB660BB85F.jpg?v=1789275671","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/russian-khokhloma-lacquered-wooden-dish-gold-ground-with-strawberries-and-rowan-over-black-turned-and-hand-painted-c-1960-1985","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}