Silver cup in the shape of a ladle. (also known as a korchik) Russia, 1899-1908, made by the "Brothers Grachev" company.

The Grachev brothers factory (Br. Grachevs), 1866-1918, is undoubtedly considered one of the most famous, outstanding and original enterprises of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg for the production of silver, gold and galvanic products. The ancestor of the world -famous family business was Grachev Gabriel Petrovich. Being a master of silver business and having worked for a rather long time in the company "Gass" in 1866, Gabriel Petrovich opens his own business production business. And a year later, in 1867, a unique silver with the named stigma “Grachev” and the masters who worked for the company, connoisseurs buy in their own shop a company near Duma No. 1 and No. 2. Gabriel Petrovich prepared a decent shift, And his sons - Mikhail, Alexei, Grigory, Semen, Nikolai, Gabriel, Peter, Ivan - continued the father’s work with great success. So, in 1892, the company received the well -deserved title of court supplier and the exclusive trusting right to brand its products by the legitimate image of the double -headed eagle, and in 1901 the title of supplier of the highest court was unconditionally confirmed. By 1895, the workshop had grown into the “Grachev brothers” factory with 87 personnel number and stable annual turnover of one hundred and twenty -five thousand rubles. In 1900, Mikhail and Semyon, following the economic trends of the leading enterprises of that time, as full comrades, with the participation of depositors, the rest of the brothers, are opened by the Grachev brothers trading house. Confidently conquer awards of all-Russian and worldwide artistic and industrial exhibitions, including exhibitions of Chicago and Nizhny Novgorod. At the exhibition in Copenhagen, the company received a gold medal on the Stanislav tape. It is impossible to underestimate the influence of the personal achievements of the brothers on the development of family affairs. So, Semen Gavrilovich graduated with honors from Dr. Vyeman's commercial school (he was also completed by Agafon K. Faberge). Since 1892, Mikhail Gavrilovich was a full -time appraiser of the office of his imperial majesty. in 1917, due to the radically changed political situation, the range of products at the factory narrowed to the silver table and manual grenades. On March 2, 1918, like many Tsarist Russia enterprises, the Grachev brothers factory with all structural units included in it was closed. Products produced: unique in beauty, household items, toiletry, cabinet sculpture, cabinet sculpture, cabinet. The dishes and other products of the Grachev brothers factories were friendly not only at the court, but also the general public. Grace products are commonly common in the silver and golden affairs of the 19th century in the form of decorating objects with picturesque enamel fobes (portraits, landscapes, landscapes, landscapes, landscapes, landscapes, landscapes. Antique scenes) or coating with the thinnest layer of translucent enamel cut on a gold or silver basis is difficult to wove or image. enamel technique, a scab is represented by an amazing antique set of coffee spoons made of 88th silver in the workshop on the workshop “on »For the company of the Grachevs in the last quarter of the XIX century. The set includes 12 coffee spoons formed from two sets the same in shape and different in the pattern. Thanks to the mechanization of labor in factories, by the end of the century, the enamel intake was widely developed by the scanny: the Carved ornament patterns of the Grace masters are covered with enamel Bright expressive, and, at the same time, transparent, flowers. A characteristic feature that gives the products of the Grachevs to even greater historical uniqueness are made by masters at the highest professional level, flat patterns of a spider scan with enamel are no longer so expressive, more faded tones, mostly yellow and green shades. Special status to the company Grachevs, as well as determining one of its stylistic directions, is the fact that the Grachev brothers in St. Petersburg were the executors of the church orders. Therefore, the composition of the artistic design of masters often depended directly on the historically formed, dictated by the canons of the Church, the form of the subject itself and on clear harmony, proportionality, in the location of various drawings on it. Applied art, expert of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Alexander Nikolayevich Ivanov) The factory of the Grachev brothers belongs to the first higher category of jewelers and firms of the gold and silver case of pre -revolutionary Russia. This means that the works of the factory, both in terms of working characteristics and in cost, are equivalent to the eminent works of Faberge. The historical features of the organization of gold and silver affairs in Russia of the 19th century were also reflected in the stamping of silver products of that time. For all cities in the XVIII and XIX V.V. The stamping of glimmer by the stigmas included three types of stigma.