It may not be a full-blown revolution, but in case you haven`t noticed, the Russians are coming. Right into our homes.
”Suddenly the USSR is on the cutting edge,” Harper`s Bazaar trumpeted late last year, ”and all things Russian-including furniture, art and dance, are becoming as hot and tantalizing as the buttery center of Chicken Kiev.”
Furniture, lighting and fabrics made by American manufacturers in a variety of Russian styles already are available there; so are funky fashion items such as Soviet wristwatches (the ones allegedly worn by the military), CCCP jeans and T-shirts of Hard Rock Cafe Leningrad, all made in the Soviet Union.
Textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen, who recently launched a fabric collection titled ”Russian Spring,” believes Russia will be a dominant style influence in the early 1990s. ”We will see it first in fashion,” Larsen said, ”and in our evolving color palette, which will be inspired by rich Russian colors and patterns, a jolt from the rather peaceful, comforting approach of `80s design.”
”There will be a renewed focus on Russian art and an inquiry into its pop culture,” added Larsen, who for three decades has been fascinated by what he calls the ”depth and soul quality in Russian design.”
Thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet citizens who had surreptitiously hoarded prize bits of their past are flaunting their homes` once-hidden treasures for the first time since 1917: 18th and 19th Century furniture crafted for the palaces of the grand dukes, centuries-old icons, jewel-encrusted boxes, porcelains, lacquerware, folk art and antique textiles.
Museums and palaces are being furiously refurbished, restored to their original lush splendor.
Early last year an unprecedented exhibition of Russian art from 1889-1989, including propaganda posters, traveled through England. Glasnost has paved the way for business and trade exchanges, too, some of which already have begun in the home furnishings industry.
This latest Russian revolution started not over a bowl of borscht, a shot of vodka or a dollop of caviar, but where such trends often are ignited: in the art and antique markets.
Ten years ago society designers such as Manhattan`s Sister Parrish and collectors Ann and Gordon Getty had already begun snapping up Russian antiques. And two years ago Town & Country identified Russo-mania, after noting the emergence of Russian antiques at the popular New York winter antiques show. The fanciful Bonbonniere Easter Egg, created by the firm of Peter Karl Faberge, will be the centerpiece of Christie`s April 19 sale of
”Important Russian Works of Art.” The egg is expected to bring more than $1 million.
As interest percolated, prices escalated. When a pair of Russian ivory desks expected to fetch $40,000 to $60,000 at a Christie`s auction wound up selling for $385,000 five years ago, it seemed only a matter of time before American furniture manufacturers took note.
Chad Womack, a designer for the John Widdicomb Co. of Grand Rapids, Mich., had been researching Biedermeier furniture and kept finding dramatic examples of Russian designs. He was particularly intrigued with furniture from the Russian Empire era (about 1770 to 1830), during the reigns of Catherine the Great, Paul I, Alexander I and Nicholas I.
”The furniture of this period bears a certain Russian bravado,” Womack said. ”Its styling is masculine; hardware is heavy and exotic. There`s a lush mixture of wood veneers, sometimes stone and glass, with carvings of eagles, lions and other aggressive animals as well as mythical creatures like griffins and sphinxes. Generally there`s a slightly exaggerated quality to the Empire period pieces.”
Antiques experts have pointed out a certain eccentricity, if not gracelessness, to Russian furniture. New York dealer Gene Tyson has spoken of its ”quirky, incalculable and strange” elements. A Sotheby`s furniture expert refers to its massiveness and odd proportion as ”clumsy but endearing.”
It took some coaxing, but Womack persuaded his bosses to let him dabble. In the spring of 1987, three pieces-a secretary, chair and chest-were introduced at the semiannual High Point, N.C., furniture market, but their Russian roots were soft-pedaled. The concern, ”Would anybody buy Russian furniture?” had been shared by auction houses up until the last five years;
when Russian pieces came on the market they often were labeled as Austrian or German Biedermeier.
But the Dallas-Ft. Worth Home and Garden magazine pronounced the collection ”hotter than glasnost.” Others were equally enthused.
Widdicomb has added to its collection, which is taking off. These fine reproductions are not inexpensive; a neoclassical drop-front secretary in the style of David Roentgen, a famous German cabinetmaker for the court of Catherine the Great, is priced at $8,500. Though the Russian collection represents only 3 percent of the company`s entire line, it accounts for 10 percent of sales.
But the Widdicomb pieces are unusual and exquisitely crafted. A desk with a black leather top sports hand-tooling with gold paint and striking brass star motifs with a distinctly militaristic feeling. Based on a Roentgen design and influenced by the French Directoire period, it is listed at $5,700.
A six-legged console of satinwood, cherry and Karelian birch has elegant Gothic arches between its four front legs and is decorated with ebony, brass, lions and griffins and a hand-painted faux marble top.
Trouvailles Inc., a furniture manufacturer in Watertown, Mass., that specializes in fine reproductions, also has a 20-piece Russian collection, which ranges from the highly ornate to the rustic. Its curvilinear Tolstoy chair is adapted from an original in the Tolstoy dacha (country house) that predates the invention of bentwood in the early 19th Century.
”These pieces have a clunky, overscale look,” said Trouvailles advertising director Charlotte Israel. ”Once you associate the word `Russian` with them, it seems to fit.
”The wood is heavily distressed and finished dark. Besides the scale and weightiness, they`re totally different looking. There`s a strange grace, from the curve of an arm, the bentwood. You`re aware of the hand work, that it`s not out of a cookie cutter.”
One thing extraordinary about the Russian furnishings now being reproduced is that they never really were mass-produced but were originally commissioned for the czars. Said one San Francisco decorator: ”There`s no such thing as Hotel Ritz Russian furniture that we know of.”
Over the years, some things remained fairly constant in Russian furnishings. In general, typical characteristics include the following:
– Exaggerated proportions-Seemingly awkward, the pieces worked in the context of the large spaces for which they were designed. Chair legs might be delicate, even stiletto, whereas backs might be enlarged. Said author Antonine Cheneviere: ”There`s a feeling that something is wrong; it`s just that proportions are different. The Russian pieces have a lot of fantasy and imagination.”
– A mixture of woods-Many are native to Russia, such as Karelian birch, a warm, light brown wood that gets its heavy figuration from constant freezing and thawing along Russia`s tundra. Karelian wood often was combined with cherry and French walnut.
– Stone work and glass work-Jasper, porphyry, malachite, lapis lazuli, cloisonne enamel, mother-of-pearl, ivory and milk glass are among the exotic materials teamed, sometimes in unorthodox fashion. The Russians also toyed with unusual combinations of materials-woods with porcelains, blue or red glass and steel.
– Elaborate ornamentation-Though some motifs were influenced by Egyptian and neoclassical designs (lions, eagles, griffins, sphinxes), the application of brass or gilt was ”very much the Russian style,” according to Womack;
that is, applied in abundance in corrugated patterning, fillets or pinstriping. Some have suggested that the extravagant use of gold and color in architecture and interiors was in response to the harsh climate.
– Architectural features-”Another trademark,” according to Womack. Some decorative elements on furniture clearly were reminiscent of building parts.
The Russians` unique woods and semiprecious stones are very adaptable to furniture manufacturing, even if the Russian style seems unusual at first.
”Russia seems to be an unexplored culture,” said Rhett Sypher, president of Shoal Creek, a company that has introduced a lamp collection inspired by the czarist period. ”There`s somewhat of a mystique about it.”
Besides, as one decorator put it, ”How many copies of copies of French furniture can we stand?”
