The famous glasses of Master Vershinin

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

More than 200 years ago, the master Alexander Petrovich Vershinin (1765-1828) lived in the village of Nikolo-Pestrovka, Penza Region, and he made his famous two-layer glass once, in 1802.

The Vershinin serf family worked at the plant for over a century (Nikolsko-Bakhmetevsky plant 1764-1917; Red Giant 1917-2009), and its representatives were foremen and managers from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. Alexander Vershinin at the beginning of the 19th century was the best craftsman at the factory; in 1807, Emperor Alexander I presented him with a gold watch for a good job. Then a friend of the owner of the plant, Nikolai Alekseevich Bakhmetev, F. P. Lubyanovsky wrote to him about Vershinin from St. Petersburg “… your master is a revered man. His curiosity knows no bounds; He considers everything, wants to write off everything, and spent a lot of time in the capital”.

This master created items that the largest museums dream of getting hold of today. The unique glasses he made, the only ones in the world, are called “Vershinin's glasses”.

The secret is that they have double walls, in a narrow space between which whole paintings are located, more precisely, small models of landscapes made of pebbles, moss, straw, colored threads and paper. For many years, specialists were especially delighted and bewildered by how the master was able to solder the glass walls and not burn or destroy fragile models. At that time, glass blowers worked without gas burners, near red-hot furnaces, where the products were heated and melted as a whole.

In museum collections, eight such unique glasses are known, attributed to Vershinin, the theme of the decor is not repeated on any of them. Alexander Vershinin created items that the largest museums in the world dream to acquire today. Vershinin's glasses are on display in American museums: two at the Corning Glass Museum, New York; another - at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The most curious glass is with a picture of a balloon flight. (The first public balloon launch in Russia took place in St. Petersburg in November 1783.)

In 1996, in the city of Nikolsk, Penza Region, a famous glass was stolen from the Museum of Glass.

Today no one knows how many glasses of Vershinin are "hidden" in private collections. Their existence becomes known when they appear at the world's largest Sotheby's or Christie's auctions. It is a great success if some museum buys the glass at the auction. Unfortunately, it often goes to the owner who does not want to disclose his name. The last sale of Vershinin's work known to our specialists took place at Christie's London auction in 2000. The glass exhibited there was bought for 28 thousand pounds (about 45 thousand US dollars) with an initial estimate of 10-15 thousand pounds. Who bought this glass and where is now stored is unknown.