In 2015, the Vologda Lace Museum celebrates only its 5th anniversary, but has already managed to take 9th place in the ranking of the best museums in the country according to TripAdvisor. And this is not surprising, because lace craft was registered in Vologda at the beginning of the 19th century, when local craftswomen, imitating the fashion of Italy and Flanders, began to decorate dresses and linen of rich gentlemen with openwork threads of linen.
And very soon, lace "factories" began to appear in all significant landowners' estates in the province, supplying lace products to St. Petersburg and Moscow. One of these factories was founded by the landowner Zasetskaya, three versts from Vologda in the village of Kovyrino, where serfs weaved the finest lace for luxurious ball gowns, and then the lace craft moved to the folk environment and became one of the types of folk art that reflected the needs and tastes of a wide range of local population.
As a result, in 1893 in the Vologda province 4,000 craftswomen were engaged in lace craft, in 1912 - 40,000. And already in 1928 a vocational school of lacemakers was created in Vologda, and two years later the Vologda Lace Union was opened.
Vologda lace has repeatedly received the highest awards at exhibitions: a gold medal at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925, the Grand Prix in Paris in 1937, a gold medal in Brussels in 1958. Vologda lace curtain "Russian motives" was awarded with the highest award of the Grand Prix.
And finally, in November 2010, in Vologda, at 12 Kremlin square, the Lace Museum was officially opened. The main exposition is located on an area of 1,500 sq. m. and is devoted to the development of the traditional art craft of the Vologda region and world trends in the development of lace-making from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 21st century. The exposition is organized in chronological order.
The first hall is dedicated to European lace centers - Germany, France, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, as well as to the era of the origin of the art of lace making (XVII-XVIII centuries), when they were woven from gold and silver threads. The main gallery displays exhibits that reveal the following lace themes: "Lace in a peasant costume and ethnographic textiles", "Lace products of 1920-1940", works of authorship by the artists of the Snezhinka association.
Here you can see such vivid works of lace craft as a tablecloth by E. N. Elfina "Snowflake", curtain by VD Veselova "Peaceful Moscow", curtain by K. V. Isakova "Roosters" and others. Many interesting excursions await the guests of the museum, during which all-knowing guides will tell you how Vologda lace differs from the rest, which tree is used for bobbins and demonstrate the technique of weaving lace with the addition of gold and silver threads.
By the way, a new tourist route in the North-West of Russia with a visit to the picturesque lake towns of the Vologda region, in each of which you can find not only lace, but also handmade ceramic accessories in the Russian style, was also named silver, only Ozherelya.
Diana Mitskevich