The history of jewelry business in Russia at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries is shrouded in many legends and mysteries, many of which are yet to be revealed. Our today's audio story  is about one of them, associated with the jewelry brand of Fyodor Lorie and his partner, self-taught master Egor Cheryatov.

From about the middle of the 19th century, after a series of grandiose and dizzying victories at international industrial exhibitions in Paris, London and Berlin, the works of Russian jewelers gained fame and became popular in European countries. The items created by the artisans that bore the title of Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty Court Supplier¹⁾ were highly valued. Carl Bolin, Andrey Postnikov, Pavel Sazikov, Ivan Khlebnikov, Carl Faberge, Friedrich Köchli, Orest Kurlyukov, Fedor Rückert, Pavel Ovchinnikov and other jewelers held this title. Fyodor Lorie can be attributed to the galaxy of these outstanding artisans, however, his name was undeservedly forgotten.

Exhibition “Fedor Lorie and jeweler Egor Cheryatov. Restitution” in the Museum Collection, to some extent, illustrates and explains the events of the past. And the catalog²⁾, which is timed to coincide with this thematic exhibition, reconstructs the history of Lorie enterprise creation, restores the significance of its founder’s and key master’s Egor Cheryatov names in the history of Russian jewelry art. Art critics and historians who worked on the creation of the catalog managed to find rare archival materials and restore some historical facts.

To represent the historical scale and significance of the Lorie company, it should be compared with the Faberge jewelry house. The very comparison of these two enterprises is indicative. While Faberge's Neoclassical pieces were especially popular, Lorie produced refined, exquisite and luxurious items in the style of Moscow Art Nouveau.

We invite you to visit the thematic exhibition “Fedor Lorie and jeweler Egor Cheryatov. Restitution” that presents a variety of servingware items, household items and jewelry by Fyodor Lorie and learn how they are associated with the tradition of nobility feasts, the Christmas table and Russian culture of the Silver Age - the period of the high-water mark of the Russian Empire and at the same time of its decline. The exhibition has been prolonged until the end of February.

You can visit the exhibition as part of an organized group. Registration is on the museum website in the section "Contacts". 

¹⁾ Since the title of supplier was granted not to a firm, but to an individual, the heirs had to strive for it themselves, supplying jewelry to the Imperial Court.
²⁾ The catalog features rare items that the museum Collection founder David Iakobachvili had been collecting for several years - in fact, we can talk about the restitution of items of the unique cultural heritage.