Bogorodskaya toy. Production and sale of authentic Russian souvenirs
We have already seen the famous Bogorodsk toy at an exhibition at the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts in Moscow. It's time to go to Bogorodskoye itself, near Moscow. There is a factory where these toys are made, and there is a museum next to it. It is quite easy to identify the factory: there are carved figures already above the gate.
A wooden sculpture greets us in the factory courtyard - we just have to look closely.
The museum is located in the factory complex itself. So, feel free to go inside, where “entrance” is written on the door - they will already explain to you what and how.
They will also explain that the tradition of wooden carving in Bogorodskoye is very old. It has long been used to decorate everyday things: rockers, spinning wheels and so on.
When did toys appear here? Often referred to as the 17th century. However, it is, of course, difficult to name the exact date. The museum at the factory - then still the Bogorodsky Carver artel - appeared more than a hundred years ago. Initially, as an assortment cabinet - that is, a collection of samples for internal use. But later it opened to the public. The works of Borogodsk masters from the 19th century to the present day are collected here - in total there are over three thousand exhibits in the collection.
The Bogorodsk toy began with characters and scenes of an everyday nature.
Of course, there are also soldiers here.
Early figurines were mostly small - the traditional toy was primarily aimed at children. And here the fact that the toy moves stands out - although it is unlikely that its first authors would have been able to scientifically discuss the benefits of developing micromotor skills.
There are several technologies here. Here is a push-button toy - it starts to move when you press a button or key on the pedestal. Then the fox will try to grab Kolobok, and the bear will begin to chop the log.
The second kinetic technique is balance. To put such a toy into action, you need to swing the ball suspended from below. This is how the classic Bogorodsk “hens” work, pecking at grain.
A wide variety of characters and plots are also possible here.
Finally, the most classic - “slats”. This is how the famous “Man and the Bear” are constructed, which - if the bars are moved relative to each other - take turns hitting the anvil.
It is no coincidence that this particular toy became the emblem of the Bogorodsk factory and is displayed on its facade. And in the museum she is presented even in human size - little visitors can feel themselves in the role of one of the heroes.
Here is another version of the “plank” toy.
And a variation of the same technique - here the slats move according to the accordion principle.
There are also rarer ways to set toys in motion. Basically these are larger and more detailed compositions.
Here we are already moving on to the peculiar genre of “armchair sculpture”. Initially there were rural scenes, carriages, and “tea parties.” But sometimes historical characters too.
But still, the main character of Bogorodsk carvings has long been a bear. Sometimes on its own, sometimes together with a person.
But now we get to the shop windows of the Soviet period and we see completely different scenes.
A man and a bear present us with the Soviet coat of arms. And the next scene is “Decree on Land”.
In general, there are quite a lot of Lenins in different variations and types. Although such things were not made in large numbers - they were mainly made to order as official gifts.
But these “three heroes” are actually Frunze, Budyonny and Kotovsky. And other Chapaevs and carts are also present.
But the same era gives us fairy-tale and literary subjects.
And here is young Pushkin with Arina Rodionovna.
What’s funny is that sculptures depicting politicians are sometimes commissioned from Bogorodsk craftsmen even today. They told me, in particular, the names of Putin and Luzhkov. It’s a pity, but their images are not presented in the museum exhibition.
But, of course, not only are children's toys still in production in abundance (where now a hare can appear not only with a drum, but also with a laptop), but also cabinet sculpture. Mostly now it’s animal art.
There are also interesting variants of high reliefs.
Moreover, such an office sculpture may well reach the size of a park - in full bear height.
Another recent innovation is the appearance of religious subjects (after all, Sergiev Posad is not far away).
And of course, the technology of hand carving itself is shown - of course, using the example of bears. The material is soft wood - mainly linden.
And here is the owner of the museum, Natalya Alexandrovna, who will tell you all these and many other details.
We go out into the street and once again look at the park sculptures installed there. The plots are mostly fairy tales. Well, or “bearish”.
But the trees stood so frost-covered on the road to Bogorodskoye. Well, I can’t promise a similar spectacle at any time - it depends on the weather.
In principle, the museum at the Bogorodsk factory is regularly open on weekdays, until 17:00. However, firstly, you can book a tour and even a master class on Saturdays - you just need to do this in advance.
Secondly, in May, a traditional festival will be held here on the territory of the factory - this is May 16-17-18, that is, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The festival is, of course, open to the public.
Well, and thirdly, the museum is seriously thinking about making Saturday an open excursion day. We will wait for information on this matter.
Now how to get there.
Firstly, get to Sergiev Posad one way or another. You can go by car (which is convenient, although it is fraught with traffic jams on the way out of Moscow). You can take the train (which, as it turned out, run in the direction of Sergiev Posad quite often - you most likely won’t have to wait more than half an hour at any time of the day).
Next for motorists: having entered Sergiev Posad and moving along the main road, do not miss the left turn to Uglich-Kalyazin shortly after the Lavra remains on the left. Further according to the scheme presented on the museum’s website (or, more simply put, straight ahead all the time, right up to turning right at the huge sign “Zagorsk PSPP”).
For those who travel by public transport: there is a bus station directly opposite the railway station in Sergiev Posad. From where you can get to Bogorodskoye by bus or minibus with the same number 49. The minibus runs more often and goes faster. The bus is less frequent and on schedule (about once an hour). In general, it has an advantage, perhaps, only for regularly traveling local residents who have travel cards for it, but for a one-time trip, a minibus is still more convenient.
In any case, you need to go to the final stop. From which walk forward a little in the direction of travel (the landmark is a healthy red and white pipe). The official address of the factory is Bogorodskoye, 79 B (that’s right, no street).
In the Orthodox heart of Russia, not far from the city of Sergiev Posad, on a picturesque hill on the banks of the Kunya River, stands a village - the birthplace of the famous folk craft of carved wooden toys and sculptures.
Legend
When the first toy was carved from linden in the village of Bogorodskoye, no one knows for sure, but there is a legend that the first “Auku” figurine was made by a mother for her children to amuse them. Later, the doll was sold to a merchant, and he put it in his shop for decoration, but the same toy was bought at a profit for the merchant.
Bogorodskoye
Bogorodskoye is an ancient village. Already in the 15th–16th centuries, local peasants, at that time serfs of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, laid the foundations for the artistic craft of woodworking that subsequently developed. The village has become one of the centers of folk art in the history of Russian applied art.
Artel "Bogorodsky Carver"
In 1913, the craftsmen united into the Bogorodsky Carver artel, and a vocational school was opened, the main task of which was to train new personnel - masters of artistic wood carving.
Boy skiing with a dog. 1950-60 Guide to Russian Crafts, CC BY-SA 4.0In 1960, on the eve of the 300th anniversary of the birth of folk crafts, the artel was transformed into a factory.
Activities
By 2001, the company had identified several areas of activity:
- a section of carved white toys,
- sculpture area,
- a section of turning painted toys with movement, based on ancient principles of assembly and painting,
- a section of mixed styles and trends, mainly wood chips and painted toys,
- matryoshka
Since 1999, the company, in collaboration with the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, has been reviving iconostasis carvings.
Fame
Bogorodsk toys can be found in shops, museums, exhibitions, and in many homes not only in our cities, but also abroad.
, CC BY-SA 4.0 Far beyond the borders of the Moscow region, Bogorodsk master miracle workers are known: , N.I. Maksimov, M.A. Pronin, A.Ya. Chushkin, A.A. Ryzhov, I.K. Stulov, S.A. Pautov, I.M. Polsky, M.Ya. Dvornikov, .
Bogorodsk carvers took part in numerous exhibitions: their works were awarded gold medals at world exhibitions in Paris, New York, and Brussels.
The toy “The Peasant and the Hen” is located in the Historical Museum of Moscow; the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg has a permanent exhibition where the famous compositions “How the Mice Buried the Cat”, “Miracle Yudo the Fish-Whale” and many other works are exhibited.
Bogorodskaya factory - review
Variegated wooden chickens on a stand, figurines of blacksmiths, a man and a bear - pull the bar and they will knock with hammers on a small anvil... Funny toys, known in Rus' since time immemorial, have become the main folk craft for residents of the village of Bogorodskoye near Moscow.
LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE VILLAGE OF BOGORODSKOE
The history of the Bogorodsk toy begins with a legend. They say that in a small village near modern Sergiev Posad there lived a peasant family. They were poor people and had many children. The mother decided to amuse the children and make them a doll. I sewed it from fabric, but after a few days the children tore the toy. She wove it out of straw, but by evening the doll fell apart. Then the woman took a sliver and carved a toy out of wood, and the children called her Auka. The children had fun for a long time, and then they got bored with the doll. And her father took her to the fair. There was a merchant there who found the toy interesting and ordered a whole batch from the peasant.
Since then, they say, most residents of the village of Bogorodskoye have taken up the “toy” craft.
But seriously, folk crafts arose under the influence of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery - one of the largest centers of artistic crafts in Moscow Rus' 350 years ago. Traditional Bogorodsk toys are unpainted figures of people, animals and birds made of linden, compositions from the life of a Russian peasant. The “man and the bear” are still considered a symbol of the craft in various plot productions, the first of which was the movable toy “Blacksmiths”.
WOODEN TOY FACTORY
At the beginning of the last century, the first production appeared in the village of Bogorodskoye - the handicraft and toy artel of Andrei Chushkin. Later the artel received the name “Bogorodsky Carver”. During Soviet times, the craft flourished; the artel, which became an artistic carving factory in 1960, employed 300 people and received large state and foreign orders. Now the situation has changed. Walking through the factory floors, I was amazed - no more than five craftsmen worked in each of them, and most of the premises were simply empty.
According to the head of the sales department, Andrei Lunev, over the last decade, the factory’s staff has decreased by exactly half. And there were much fewer orders, mainly exhibitions and metropolitan vernissages. Moreover, the capital’s artisanal competitors tortured me. “They cut up crude fakes and sell them to resellers for pennies. Naturally, it will cost less than our work. So people buy, out of ignorance.” Andrey showed factory and homemade versions of the “Blacksmiths” toy. The difference is immediately visible. In the toy, made by the hands of Bogorodsk carvers, the proportions were observed, the smallest details of the figures of a man and a bear were cut out. And the fake looks more like the clumsy work of a junior high school student.
Lately people don't want to go to work in factories. The salary is more than modest. Some “exclusive craftsmen” work from home, completing complex, original orders from the factory, and receive a percentage of their cost. An ordinary carver at the factory receives no more than one and a half thousand rubles, painters - about a thousand. Carvers in creative workshops are “richer”, the salary reaches up to 2500, and their work is more interesting. Once a month they must present two toys to the factory’s artistic council for production, plus exclusive orders. In this case, you can also earn interest from each. The rest of the employees have not seen any bonuses or “13th salary” since the early 90s. The team has noticeably “aged”; the young people, having graduated from the local art and industrial school, either go to work in Sergiev Posad, or do carving at home, and hand over their products to resellers.
“BIRTH” OF A TOY
Before reaching the store counter, a toy goes through a long journey. It starts with a well-dried linden log, a soft wood that can be processed. Products can be turned or hand-made. With the first, everything is simpler - the parts of future toys are turned on a machine, assemblers connect them, and painters paint them, if necessary, and varnish them. But manual work is much more difficult. Carvers process linden “churaks” themselves. The wood may be soft, but most of the craftsmen at the factory are women. The product blank is first cut out with an ax or cut out using a hacksaw according to a template. Then processing with tools begins - chisels and Bogorodsk knives with very sharp blades. So cuts are a common thing for craftsmen: they will cover the wound with a bandage and go back to work. It is necessary to develop a standard; each carver must deliver 120 - 130 products per month.
“They don’t pay us enough,” the carver Tamara, an elderly woman who had worked at the factory for 42 years, complained to me. - If a finished sculpture costs about a thousand, then the master receives one hundred rubles from them. And you can’t make many such products in a day, at most one or two, although everything depends on experience. From the carver, the products go to assembly, painting, or directly to the warehouse. In the workshops I saw a lot of blanks, future “bears”, “hares”, “young ladies” and “dogs”. But I was able to get an idea of the famous Bogorodsk toy only in the factory museum.
FOR FUN AND BEAUTY
Finding myself in the factory museum-shop, I felt like a child again. The shelves behind the counter were filled with toys and wooden sculptures. Here are the painted chickens, familiar from childhood, on a stand, with a round balance underneath it. Unwind it, and the chickens begin to knock their beaks together. Here is a fisherman cat with a sly face - also a moving toy. And also many different bunnies, bears, mice. All the dolls are painted with bright colors, you just want to pick them up. I tapped the blacksmiths’ hammers, “pecked” the chickens, “fed” the bunny with carrots... Our photojournalist spent a long time swinging the balance of the “fisherman cat,” and when the wooden paw with the fishing rod began to move, he burst into happy laughter. Museum methodologist Natalya Vyunnik watched the entertainment of the journalists with a smile.
Many of us “fall into childhood,” said Natalya. “And when schoolchildren come, it’s impossible to tear them away from the counter.” Choosing is a problem; you want to buy everything at once. For small children, our toys are the best: when you set the toy in motion, your hand develops, and you can chew on wood, after all. We paint with gouache and then cover it with oil varnish, it is harmless.
HOW TOYS “COME TO LIFE”
Children mostly prefer bright turning toys. You can buy them at the factory for 70 - 80 rubles, in stores - three times more expensive. But handmade toys and sculptures cost much more, about a thousand rubles. Some of them are motionless, while in others, only a certain part “comes to life” with the help of a spring inserted inside. The “Russian beauty” shakes her head, the leaves on the birch tree and umbrellas in the hands of the “ladies” tremble... There are also compositional toys where each character moves.
In “The Peasant Yard” all the characters are busy with their work: the mother milks the cows, the father chops firewood, the daughter feeds the chickens and they chatter with their beaks, and the little son swings on a swing. The figures are driven by a push-button mechanism. Natalya explained that the parts are attached with a strong thread to the inner bar. The bar has moved - and the figures “come to life”. Another traditional mechanism is considered to be a divorce, when the figures are attached to sliding slats. This is how “Blacksmiths” and “Soldiers on Divorce” work.
WORKS OF MASTERS
In addition to traditional toys, the craftsmen of the Bogorodsk factory make custom-made carved furniture, wooden wall panels with three-dimensional images of people and animals, large sculptures and accessories. I saw these works in the factory warehouse and in the creative workshops of carvers. I wanted to buy a watch framed with penguin figures - it turned out to be a bit expensive, about five thousand.
Sometimes you come across “cheerful” customers,” says Sergei Pautov, a carver at the creative workshop. - One day a guy came from the cool and ordered a carved stupa as a gift for his mother-in-law. With a hint, so to speak. And an employee of a Russian museum in Germany asked to make several sculptures in explicit erotic poses. I still don’t understand why the Russian museum needs such exhibits. They order carved devils and even wooden shoes. Several years ago I had to make a panel - a portrait of Luzhkov; the former governor of the Moscow region Tyazhlov wanted to present such a gift to the capital's mayor. Now an order has arrived for Putin and Gromov.
A REAL FOLK CRAFT
After talking with the local population, I learned that factory orders are not the main means of income for carvers. Most work from home and sell their products to resellers. Otherwise you won't survive. Many are believers and have many children. How can you feed your family on a zero salary, at today’s prices? Therefore, each house has its own small workshop. There are regular customers from resellers, and there is also one-time work, for example, carved furniture for a bathhouse or a country house. “Individual workers” also have no problems with raw materials. Traders come to the village and sell linden by the cubic meter, from their cars. Prices are quite affordable; one cubic meter can be purchased for one and a half thousand rubles. This amount of wood is enough for a craftsman to work for a whole year.
At the factory, part-time work for its employees is frowned upon. Only everyone continues to “tinker.” The profit is obvious, as one of the village women told me: in just five years, her daughter’s family was able to earn enough for a two-room apartment and a car, and now they are building a country brick house. In addition to woodcarvers, there is another folk craftsman in Bogorodskoye - an old blacksmith. At seventy years old, grandpa is still the only one in the village who makes woodcarving tools - Bogorodsk knives and chisels. He sells a set of ten items for one and a half thousand rubles, and brings his goods directly to the factory or vocational school. True, recently carvers have become accustomed to making tools on their own, but only a few. So the old man's business is booming.
Source - Newspaper "Solidarity"
Bogorodskaya carving
History of the fishery
Sergiev Posad and its surroundings have long been considered the historical center of the toy business in Russia. Sometimes it was called the “Russian toy capital” or “the capital of the toy kingdom.” Many surrounding villages made toys. But the most famous was the village of Bogorodskoye, located approximately 29 kilometers from Sergiev Posad. Experts call the toy industries of Sergiev Posad and the village of Bogorodskoye two branches on one trunk. Indeed, the crafts have common roots: the traditions of ancient pillar-shaped sculpture and the school of volumetric, relief wood carving at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, known since the 15th century.
In Sergiev Posad, there is a legend about how in the middle of the 18th century, one resident of the settlement cut a doll measuring 9 vershoks (40 cm) from a linden block and sold it to the merchant Erofeev, who traded at the Lavra. He placed it as decoration in the shop. The toy was immediately purchased at a great profit for the merchant. After this, Erofeev ordered a whole batch of such toys.
According to another folk legend, a long time ago there lived a family in the village. The mother decided to amuse the small children. She cut out an “auku” figurine from a block of wood. The children rejoiced, played and threw the “auka” onto the stove. Once the husband began to get ready for the market and said: “I’ll take the “auku” and show it to the traders at the market.” “Auka” was bought and ordered again. Since then, carving of toys began in Bogorodskoye. And it began to be called “Bogorodskaya”.
Folk craftsmen, working with primitive tools, were able to create truthful, realistic images of the surrounding reality from wood. They cut figures of animals and people from linden, from folk life, fables and fairy tales.
Toys with movement are especially interesting: on bars, with a balance, with a button. These simple, but always witty in design, devices make the toy lively, expressive and especially attractive.
It is believed that the earliest surviving works of Bogorodsk craft (located in the State Historical Museum, State Russian Museum, S. T. Morozov Museum of Folk Art and the Art and Pedagogical Museum of Toys) date back to the beginning of the 19th century. Most likely, it would be legitimate to attribute the origin of carved Bogorodsk toys to the 17th-18th centuries, and the establishment of the craft to the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries.
Bogorodsk carved toy gentleman and lady
At first, fishing was a typical peasant production. The products were made seasonally: from late autumn to early spring, that is, when there was a break in agricultural work. For a long time, Bogorodsk carvers were directly dependent on the Sergiev craft, working directly on orders from Sergiev buyers and producing mainly the so-called “gray” goods or “linen”, which were finally trimmed and painted in Sergiev Posad.
Already in the middle of the 19th century, the center of carving moved to Bogorodskoye, and the Bogorodsk craft gained independence. The formation of the Bogorodsk style itself was greatly influenced by the work of such masters as A. N. Zinin, and somewhat later by the activities of a professional artist, a native Bogorodsk resident P. N. Ustratov. The time period of the 1840s-70s of the 19th century, according to a number of experts, is the heyday of the Bogorodsk carved handicraft industry.
The next stage in the development of the toy business in Bogorodskoye is associated with the activities of the Moscow provincial zemstvo in this area in 1890-1900. In 1891, a training and demonstration workshop was organized in Sergiev Posad, which combined the functions of a research and educational institution, and also sold toys in Russia and abroad. A few years earlier in Moscow, with the support of S. T. Morozov, the Moscow Handicraft Museum was opened. In fact, it was a whole movement that revived and supported the national basis in fading folk art. Zemstvo figures and artists such as N.D. Bartram, V.I. Borutsky, and I.I. Oveshkov played a significant role in the development of Bogorodsk crafts.
A professional artist, collector, and subsequently the founder and first director of the State Toy Museum (now the Art and Pedagogical Toy Museum) N.D. Bartram was one of the first to try to preserve and revive ancient traditions. However, seeing that the old works did not captivate the artisans, he began to direct them towards creating works in the folk style, but following the models of professional artists. An opponent of this path was the artist and collector A. Benoit, who considered this process to be an artificial salvation of the fishery.
In 1913, an artel was organized in Bogorodskoye. This helped the Bogorodsk residents gain economic independence from the Sergiev buyers. The initiators of the creation of the artel were carvers A. Ya. Chushkin and F. S. Balaev, already quite well-known at that time. The artel was headed by a kind of “artistic council”, which consisted of the oldest and most experienced masters. New carvers joining the artel were first assigned to the easiest work; if the young master could cope with making a simple toy, his task was made more difficult: making animal figures and multi-figure compositions.
In the same 1913, a training and demonstration workshop with an instructor class was opened in Bogorodskoye, and in 1914, a zemstvo school opened on its basis, in which boys studied on a full board basis.
In the first decade after the October Revolution, old zemstvo patterns were preserved in Bogorodskoye, and large quantities of fishery products were exported. In 1923, the “Bogorodsky Carver” artel was restored, in which the older generation craftsmen continued their work and the Bogorodsky craft occupies one of the leading places. Changing social structures stimulated craftsmen to search for new forms and artistic solutions. However, it was precisely at that time that the problem of “easel painting,” which had emerged in the “Zemstvo period,” arose. In the 1930s, the so-called sculpture toy appeared, distinguished by the novelty of the theme and its disclosure.
Over the next two decades (1930-1950s), professional artists and art critics again intervened in the affairs of the craft - mainly employees of the Scientific Research Institute of the Art Industry (NIIHP) created during this period. Not only in Bogorodskoye, but also in other industries, overt politicization is beginning. The masters were given themes that were alien to peasant nature and the people's understanding of beauty. In Bogorodskoye, the reaction to ideological pressure was the development of a fairy-tale theme. The conventionality of Bogorodsk carvings contributed in the best way to the expression of the unusual in the fairy tale, the creation of vivid and memorable images.
Subject composition “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”
One of the most tragic dates in the history of Bogorodsk crafts can be called 1960, when the artel labor organization, traditional for artistic crafts, was eliminated and replaced by a factory one. This process is sometimes aptly called “fabrication” of the fishery. From this time on, the craft began to slowly die, and was replaced by the concept of “art industry.”
In the 1970-1980s, about 200 carvers worked at the Bogorodsk artistic carving factory. Among them were high-class craftsmen who developed interesting designs, and there were master performers. Due to the turbulent events in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the situation in the fishery worsened even further. Currently, the Bogorodsk craft is in an endless process of struggle for survival, but the factory continues to produce products. A difficult situation has developed at the Bogorodsk Art and Industrial College. This is a constant shortage of local youth; the influx of students from the constituent entities of the federation, on the one hand, contributes to the popularization of Bogorodsk artistic carving, and on the other, reduces the classical Bogorodsk tradition to zero.
How the Bogorodskaya toy is created.
For the Bogorodsk toy, you need well-dried linden wood, a soft and pliable tree, that has been well-dried in the open air. You can also use aspen and alder, which are characterized by the same soft and uniform wood. The material intended for carving must be well dried. Drying wood is very troublesome. In the open air under a canopy, the tree dries from several months to three years. Drying can be accelerated many times over by steaming the wood. The old masters steamed the wood in a Russian oven in free heat (that is, after removing the coals).
Steamed wood not only resists cracking, but also takes on a deep brownish-golden color.
Toys can be turned or hand-made. With the first, everything is simpler - the parts of future toys are turned on a machine, cut out according to a template, assemblers connect them, and painters paint them, if necessary, and varnish them.
But manual work is much more difficult. The trunk is sawed into pieces, which are then cut along the grain into triangular logs, depending on the required size of the toy.Then the toy is “cut to death”, i.e. give it the most general outlines of the future work.
"Notching" of the product
Using the sharpest straight Bogorodsk knife (“pike”), remove all excess wood and model the shape. The final finishing of the toy involves working with small semicircular chisels (slip), which are used to depict animal fur, bird feathers or parts of people’s clothing, heavy and light fabrics, fur, lace, and ribbons.
Working with a Bogorodsk knife
Another technique for final finishing of a toy involves sanding the mold with fine sandpaper. This technique is usually used to convey smooth surfaces. Then the wooden miracle is painted or varnished. But more often, toys are left unpainted, preserving the natural color and structure of the wood.
It is easy to distinguish handmade from factory made. Handmade work is characterized by attention to the smallest details and precise adherence to proportions. And such a toy is valued much more expensive.
The most traditional dolls made in Bogorodskoye were ladies and hussars, nannies, nurses with children, soldiers, shepherdesses, and men.
The carved figure had a triangular shape, as it was made from a log obtained by cutting a log into several parts.
At first, the toys were painted, but later the Bogorodsk sculpture remains unpainted - the texture and nature of the carving perfectly convey the shape and movement, and therefore color can interfere here.
Painted Bogorodskaya toy
The toy becomes a sculpture and requires the craftsman to have his own style of carving, and this changes the nature of the carving. Instead of the traditional angular one, it becomes complex patterned. The artist is trying to convey the plumage of birds and the fur of animals.
Bogorodskaya carvings can always be recognized by the famous mark of the carver’s tool in the form of a groove and the circle of characters depicted - people, animals, subjects.
Sculpture "Horseman"
A large place was occupied by images of animals, among which the most favorite was the bear. By the will of the Bogorodsk craftsmen, he, like a man, actively participated in various works - he bent arcs (albeit unsuccessfully), forged metal, and played musical instruments in his leisure hours.
Among other toys there were small figures in the form of a soldier or a gentleman, the so-called nutcrackers. They not only served as table decorations, but also had a specific practical purpose - cracking nuts. The lower jaw of the nutcracker was part of a lever, by lifting which a nut was placed into the nutcracker's mouth. When the lever was pressed, the nut cracked easily. A similar nutcracker (nutcracker) became the hero of Hoffmann's famous fairy tale and Tchaikovsky's ballet.
Nutcrackers. XIX century Trinity-Sergiev Posad
Movable Bogorodsk toys are especially interesting. They have always enjoyed the special love of children and adults, bringing children and their parents into indescribable delight. They make toys move with the help of simple devices. There are toys on bars, with a spring, with a balance and a button.
Some figures are mounted on parallel movable slats fastened with nails. This is how, for example, the “Blacksmiths” toy was made.
You pull the ends of the planks to the sides, and the figures come to life: a cunning and good-natured bear are knocking together with hammers on a small anvil, hares are feasting on carrots, a fisherman is catching a fish.
When the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin was given the popular Bogorodsk toy “Blacksmiths”, he said: “The people who created this toy are a great people.”
The “Blacksmiths” toy is over 300 years old; it is one of the oldest Bogorodsk toys. Today, the movable toy "Blacksmiths" has become a symbol of Russian wooden toys and is a registered trademark of the Bogorodsky Carver enterprise.
And the “Chickens” toy is also a long-liver. Children played with it back in the times of Pushkin and Lermontov. But even in our time, with all the abundance of toys, a simple game with painted chickens still delights both children and adults. It is designed like this: painted hens are mounted on a stand, under it there is a round balance connected with ropes to the heads of the hens. The string is pulled and the chicken's head bends. As soon as you shake the toy slightly in your hands, the chickens will begin to peck the grains. Spin it harder, and the chickens will knock their beaks more amicably. The harder you rock the toy, the more actively the chickens peck. If you stop the swaying, the chickens’ movements become slow and lazy—the chickens are “full.” And only the pile of millet on the stand does not diminish, like the “irreplaceable” nickel.
Toy on a circle "chicken"
Similar to them are toys with a ball suspended below, for example drummers
Drummer Bear
Pull toys. They are made in the shape of an owl or a bear. The bear stands calmly, its paws are down, but as soon as you pull the string, it starts waving them.
Teddy bear
Some toys are mounted on bedside tables, and a spiral spring is inserted inside, which powers the figure (“Skiers”, “Like planting an apple tree”, “Bear the Lumberjack”).
Lumberjack Bear
For others, only a certain part “comes to life” with the help of a spring inserted inside. The “Russian beauty” shakes her head, the leaves on the birch tree tremble and the umbrellas in the hands of the “ladies”...
Leaves on springs
A witty and entertaining “acrobatic” toy that performs unimaginable pirouettes on the horizontal bar with ease and dynamism. And there is also an acrobat bear.
Teddy bear acrobat
Another traditional mechanism is considered to be a divorce, when the figures are attached to sliding slats. This is how “Soldiers on Divorce” works.
"Divorce" riders on movable bars. Beginning of the 20th century
In more complex compositional Bogorodsk toys, each character comes to life and moves.
They also make entire compositions: “Peasant Hut”, “Peasant Yard”. In “The Peasant Yard” all the characters are busy with their work: the mother milks the cows, the father chops firewood, the daughter feeds the chickens and they chatter with their beaks, and the little son swings on a swing. The figures are driven by a push-button mechanism. The parts are attached with a strong thread to the inner strip. The bar has moved - and the figures “come to life”.
Movable composition “Peasant hut”
Uncomplicated, but always ingenious in design, devices “revive” the toy, making it mobile, more expressive and attractive.
For small children, these toys are the best: when you set the toy in motion, the hand develops, and the material is natural, not some kind of plastic.
The history of Bogorodsk wooden toys goes back more than 350 years. The products are known all over the world, and in their time they were appreciated not only by children, but also by world-famous sculptors. A distinctive feature of the Bogorodsk toy is the absence of obvious details and strict carved forms in sculptural products. Thanks to this manufacturing method, the toy developed creativity and imagination in children, and did not bother them for a long time.
Movable toys were no less interesting. Their thoughtful design worked for a long time and did not break.
The Bogorodskaya toy got its name from the village where craftsmen who made wooden blanks lived. The Bogorodsk toy became so firmly established in the life of the local population that one of the products became a symbol of the village and is depicted on its coat of arms. This is a moving toy with a man and a bear.
History of the fishery
The production of Bogorodsk toys began in the 15th – 16th centuries, in the village of the same name near Sergiev Posad, Moscow region. Initially, craftsmen in processing and artistic cutting of wood worked on orders from buyers. They prepared the base, which they then painted in Sergiev Posad.
Finally, as a craft, the production of Bogorodsk toys was formed at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, when the entire process of making toys was transferred to craftsmen from the village of Bogorodskoye. They developed them, determined the theme, made the bases and, if necessary, painted them.
At the beginning of the 20th century, an artel was organized in the same village, in which masters of cutting toys were trained, passing on to them the accumulated knowledge, techniques and skills. Due to the war and economic turmoil, the artel was temporarily closed, and then started working with renewed vigor in Soviet times.
Bogorodsk wooden toys were actively exported to European countries. At first, the themes were presented by the life of the common people; later, after the end of World War II, the masters switched to fairy-tale themes. In later years, the appearance of themes for making toys was influenced by events taking place in the country, for example, sending a man into space, popularizing sports, etc.
Types of Bogorodsk toys
Bogorodsk wooden toys were of two types:
1. Sculpture toy
2. Movable toy
The sculptural figures were distinguished by the absence of clearly defined features. In them, children, due to the development of their own imagination, could see a bear, a fox and other animals.
Bogorodsk craftsmen also carved toys with moving structures. The figurines were attached by craftsmen to dies that moved relative to each other; springs with buttons were also placed inside them, and another part of the toys consisted of figurines attached to a dies with a counterweight on threads.
The most famous Bogorodsk wooden toys are:
Blacksmiths, fixed on dies;
Dancing man with a spring inside;
Chickens pecking grains on a circle with a counterweight.
Episodes from ordinary life were chosen as subjects for making toys, and crafts and professions of that time were often highlighted. For example, a shoemaker was depicted at the moment of making boots, a spinner sat with a spindle at a spinning wheel, lumberjacks chopped wood, hussars sat on horses, young ladies were depicted with flowers in their hands. In later stories, bears accompanied by space satellites, vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, football players, etc. appeared.
Manufacturing technology
Traditionally, Bogorodsk wooden toys were carved from solid linden. Among all trees, this wood is the softest and most pliable.
First, the harvested and dried trunks were sawed into logs and only after that they were sent to work by the craftsmen.
Craftsmen split the chocks themselves, with a couple of strokes, into four parts. It was this form of workpiece that was most convenient for work. The figures were cut out using special Bogorodsk knives and files. Expensive types of toys were made from a single piece, and simpler toys were made from the remaining chips.
When selecting logs, we tried to take those that had the smallest number of knots, since wood with knots is difficult to process for this type of fishing. Wood carvers were usually men.
Painting of Bogorodskaya toy
(Colored (painted) Bogorodsk toys)
After preparing all the elements of the toy, it was assembled and sent for painting. If the composition was not a single structure, but was assembled from many figures or wood chips, the elements were fastened together using PVA glue and wooden glazing beads.
Most often there were Bogorodsk toys that were not painted at all. They allowed children to develop their imagination. If the toys were painted, the paints used by the craftsmen were bright, rich and very rich. The toys showed elements of Khokhloma and Gorodets painting, but at the same time they were devoid of small details characteristic of these techniques, since the toys were designed for children.
