A special section of the Hermitage's Museum of Porcelain is made up of a not particularly extensive (just over 400 items), but interesting and varied collection of artistic glassware dating from the 18th to 20th century. The exhibits include engraved decanters and goblets; cut crystal services, multi-layered glass vases decorated by carving and etching, and articles painted with gold and coloured enamels.
The most numerous part of this collection, and the most significant from an artistic point of view, is made up of products of the Imperial Glassworks (1777-1917) that illustrate all the main stages in the development of this form of applied art in Russia over more than a century and a half. With a staff of highly-qualified craftsmen and the status of a court institution, the glassworks was in an exceptional position, both financially and technically, to create unique pieces. This made it model enterprise and determined its leading role in the history of Russian glassmaking.
Most fully represented in the glass collection of the Museum of Porcelain are items from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that are marked by originality of shape, a variety of decorative techniques and high technical quality. The majority of items in this collection are one of a kind, created by the leading artists and craftsmen of the Imperial Glassworks. Among them are works designed by Rudolph Wilde, Piotr Krasnovsky, Grigory Zimin, Sergei Romanov and August Timus. The physical creators and often also the authors of many articles were talented cutters and engravers such as Nikolai Semionov and Anatoly Lukin.
The collection of Moderne (Art Nouveau) items, created after the Imperial Glassworks had merged with the Imperial Porcelain Factory in 1890, was intended to set a standard for taste and craftsmanship. Its specific character also lies in the fact that alongside Russian works here the visitor can view interesting individual examples from the European schools of glassmaking. This is because one of the main tasks of the museum attached to a functioning enterprise was to regularly build up its stocks not just with highly artistic articles made by the Imperial Factory and private Russian factories, but also with the best, technologically most advanced examples of foreign glassware. Of great interest among the latter are decorative vases made by the celebrated French firms of Emile Galle, the Daume brothers and Ernest Leveille.
