The tradition of creating miniature houses, palaces and even cities filled with copies of objects has existed in Europe since the late 17th - early 18th centuries. Museums in Holland and Germany still contain wonderful dollhouses. One of the earliest, dating back to 1690, is located in Amsterdam. It is a collection of scaled-down pieces from a wealthy home, with not only living rooms, but also an art cabinet, painting collections, a library made up of miniature books, and much more. In our country, interest in the art of creating miniature things-toys first appeared during the reign of Peter I. The doll house of Princess Augusta Dorothea von Schwarzburg (1666-1751), called “Monplaisir,” which is located in Arnstadt, Thuringia, is unique in its scale. It reproduces 26 houses, 84 rooms, 411 dolls.
In Russia, the first such miniature copy was the so-called Nashchokinsky house. In terms of the number of surviving items (611), it does not exceed many similar models, but it contains such a number of things from Pushkin’s time that is not found in any historical, everyday or literary memorial museum of the first third of the 19th century. Among its Russian analogues, it is comparable to the Rural Prison House, created later, which was presented in 1848 by Emperor Nicholas I to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna on her birthday and is now stored in Peterhof.
During Pushkin’s life, his friend, Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin, came up with the happy idea of copying his apartment in a reduced form with all the furnishings in it.
It is unknown which apartment Nashchokin recreated - over the years of working on the model, he moved several times. It is possible that Nashchokin’s initial idea grew into a desire to reproduce a rich noble mansion typical of the era of the 1820s - 1830s. According to Nikolai Ivanovich Kulikov, an actor and close friend of Pushkin and Nashchokin, “having imagined people in the size of the average height of children’s dolls, he (Nashchokin - G.N.) ordered all the accessories for this house to the first masters according to this scale.” This is how the famous Nashchokinsky house was born.
Many paintings and drawings have come down to us depicting the interiors of Pushkin’s time. But they do not give a complete, comprehensive picture of a particular apartment or house. After all, on paper or canvas it is impossible to capture volumetrically and simultaneously all the rooms and things that fill them. Having realized his plan, Nashchokin did something that is beyond the control of an artist in three dimensions and, as we would say now, he instantly captured in such an original way for posterity the furnishings of the house in which Pushkin visited more than once.
In the museum hall, behind the glass, we see a world of small things: a table set for dinner, chairs with wicker seats, sofas and armchairs, paintings on the walls, gilded bronze chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a deck of cards lying on the card table - everything is just like in the real thing. home. The only difference is that almost every item fits in the palm of your hand. However, these are not just toys or props. Made to order by Nashchokin by skilled cabinetmakers, bronzers, jewelers and other craftsmen, the items in the House can be used for their intended purpose. You can fire a pistol 4.4 centimeters long, boil water in a samovar that can easily be held with two fingers, light an oil lamp with a round matte lampshade the size of a walnut, you can... you never know what other miracles can be performed in this created by the will and whimsical blessed for us by the desire of a friend of the poet in an extraordinary microcosm.
Some memoirists wrote that Nashchokin built the House to perpetuate the memory of his friend and poet. Most likely this is a legend. But nevertheless, the model eventually acquired a Pushkin aura. Years and decades later, it became, as it were, an embodied memory of the poet. “Of course, this thing is precious as a monument of antiquity and painstaking art,” wrote A. I. Kuprin, “but it is incomparably more dear to us, as an almost living evidence of that environment... in which Pushkin simply and so willingly lived. And it seems to me that the life of this man, who has gone more than into history - into legend, - can be followed much more accurately and lovingly from Nashchokin’s house than from contemporary portraits, busts and even his death mask.” The miniature things of the House “remember” Pushkin and in their own way can tell us many funny and sad stories about him and his friend. Let's talk about the person whose name the unusual house bears.
An extraordinary personality who surprised his contemporaries with his lively mind, extensive knowledge and “excellent heart,” Nashchokin did not find his path in life. “This was an inexhaustibly kind, talented Russian soul, of which many have perished and are perishing among us.”
Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin was born on December 8, 1801. He came from an old noble family, which dates back to the boyar Dmitry Dmitrievich Nashchoka, who received “this name... because he had a wound on his cheek from the Tatars.” Another of his ancestors, boyar Afanasy Lavrentievich Ordyn-Nashchokin, a diplomat under Ivan the Terrible, is known as “the royal great seal and the guardian of great state affairs.” Pavel Voinovich, like Pushkin, was proud of his noble ancestors and could, like him, say: “The name of my ancestors appears every minute in our history...”.
Their friendship began in Tsarskoe Selo, where Pushkin studied at the Lyceum, and Nashchokin at the Noble Lyceum boarding school. Without completing the course, seventeen-year-old Pavel entered military service, and in 1823 he retired with the rank of lieutenant.
The acquaintance that began during the Lyceum years was interrupted by Pushkin’s expulsion from St. Petersburg to the south and was resumed only in 1826, after his return to Moscow. At that time, all of Moscow knew an eccentric gentleman, famous for his immense generosity, extravagance and hospitality. This was Nashchokin. As memoirists wrote, he unfailingly lent money, never demanding repayment, and his house became a haven for many invited and uninvited guests. Several times he played truant and lost everything he had, but did not lose heart, hoping for a happy occasion, which invariably presented itself: either he received an unexpected inheritance, or someone repaid him an old debt. N.I. Kulikov told how once Nashchokin, who fell in love with an actress, paid a lot of money for a small candle stub, in front of which she learned the role. Dressed in a woman's dress, he even managed to hire the artist as a maid. It is believed that this incident served as the plot for Pushkin’s poem “The Little House in Kolomna.”
A rake, a gambler, an empty man? Yes, this, and sometimes only this, seemed to Nashchokin to many of his contemporaries. But those who knew him closely, like Pushkin, thought and wrote about him differently: “ How could Nashchokin attract people to himself... Intellect. Yes, an extraordinary mind, overflowing not with scientific, but with innate natural logic and common sense, and reason, despite reckless hobby or passion for the game, reason reigned in his smart head and was even useful for other people who turned to his advice or court.. "
A cheerful, open, unbridled disposition, kindness of heart, loyalty and devotion in friendship - this is what captivated Pushkin in the character of his friend.
The blossoming of their friendship occurred in the most difficult, last years of the poet’s life, when clouds gathered over his head, knots were tied in a chain of circumstances that led to a fatal duel. These were the years of loneliness of the poet. He did not find understanding among his friends. And only Nashchokin (“only Nashchokin loves me”) understood the poet and was tolerant of all the costs of his character. Pushkin was especially touched by the tenderness in his friend’s attitude towards him, which he lacked... More than once Nashchokin helped Pushkin out in difficult financial circumstances. It was he who helped him pay off a large gambling debt incurred even before his marriage, and get out of the networks of the card player V. S. Ogon-Doganovsky.
Nashchokin enjoyed the complete trust and respect of everyone who knew him. N. I. Kulikov said: “Husbands and wives, parents and children, tired of family discord, not wanting to go to court, went to Nashchokin and asked him to judge them. Having listened to Pavel Voinovich’s smart and fair decision, they accepted it unquestioningly and usually made peace.”
All these properties of Nashchokin’s mind and nature attracted many famous writers and artists of that time N.V. to him. Gogol, V. A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, E.A. Baratynsky, M.S. Shchepkina, A.N. Verstovsky, M.Yu. Vielgorsky, K.P. Bryullov. It is noteworthy that Gogol first read “Dead Souls” in Nashchokin’s house.
Pushkin valued him as a strict critic of his works, listened to his comments and judgments, and shared his ideas. It was Nashchokin who told the poet the story of the impoverished Belarusian nobleman Ostrovsky, which became the plot basis of the novel “Dubrovsky”. Having finished the first eight chapters, Pushkin wrote to a friend: “... I have the honor to announce to you that the first volume of Ostrovsky is finished and will be sent to Moscow one of these days for your consideration.”
The colorful figure of Nashchokin also aroused the interest of Pushkin the writer. He served as a prototype for the image of Pelymov, a playmaker who, despite the circumstances, preserved a living soul and did not waste himself, in the unfinished novel “Russian Pelam.” This similarity was noted by Pushkin’s first biographer P.V. Annenkov. In his opinion, Nashchokin “... corresponded to Pushkin’s intention - to personify the idea of a moral person, so to speak, made of pure gold, who does not lose value, no matter where he ends up, no matter where he finds himself. Few people were able to preserve human dignity, straightforwardness of soul, nobility of character, clear conscience and unchanging kindness of heart like this friend of Pushkin... on the brink of death, in the whirlpool of blind passions and hobbies and under the blows of fate...” Following Pushkin, Gogol gave the features of Nashchokin to the positive hero of the second volume of Dead Souls - Khlobuev.
In the 1840s, when Nashchokin went bankrupt, Gogol took a very active part in his fate and worked to get a teacher in the family of the merchant D.E. Benardaki. “I have been thinking about your fate for a long time,” Gogol wrote, addressing Nashchokin. - You, following the example of many, spent your first youth wildly and noisily, leaving behind you in the world the name of a rake. Light remains forever with the same name once established from it. He does not need that the rake had a beautiful soul, that in the moments of the most rake her noble movements were visible, that he did not do a single dishonorable deed... I tell him [Benardaki. - G.N.] told everything, without hiding anything, that you squandered all your estate, that you spent your youth recklessly and noisily, that you were in the company of noble rakes and gamblers, and that among all this you never lost your soul, did not change never once did her noble movements manage to acquire the involuntary respect of worthy and intelligent people and at the same time the most sincere friendship of Pushkin, who cherished it for you above all others until the end of his life.”
Pushkin's death shocked Nashchokin. Hearing the terrible news, he lost consciousness and for a long time could not recover from this blow. He was tormented by the fact that he had not saved his friend from death. V.A. speaks about this in his memoirs. Nashchokina: “... I am sure that if my husband had known... about the upcoming duel between Pushkin and Dantes, he would never have allowed it and Russia would not have lost its great poet so early... After all, Pavel Voinovich settled the quarrel him and Sollogub, having prevented a duel, would have settled this story too.”
N.I. also wrote about the same thing. Kulikov: “Pavel Voinovich proved to us, and we agreed with his evidence, that if he had lived in St. Petersburg in the fateful year 1836-1837, Pushkin’s duel would not have taken place: he would have been able to upset it without damaging the honor of both opponents.”
Nashchokin died before reaching the age of 54. He died kneeling while praying.
The image of Pushkin's friend will be incomplete without a story about his famous creation - the Nashchokinsky house.
The Nashchokinsky house is a priceless relic of Pushkin's era. The poet saw the House and admired it. It is interesting that it was he, the only one of his contemporaries, who wrote about this rare work of applied art. Pushkin mentioned the House three times in letters to his wife from Moscow. First time December 8, 1831: “His house (Nashchokin. - G, N.)... is being finished; what candlesticks, what service! he ordered a piano on which a spider could play, and a vessel on which only a Spanish fly could defecate.” The following letter was written no later than September 30, 1832: “I see Nashchokin every day. He had a feast in his house." And the last - dated May 4, 1836: “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people. As if Masha (daughter of A.S. Pushkin - G.N.) rejoiced at them.”
It is known that the Pushkins saw the House in 1830 while in Moscow, shortly after their wedding. Thus, the birth of the Nashchokinsky house can be dated no later than 1830. From a letter dated December 8, 1831, it is clear that by that time there was a piano, a service, candlesticks and, undoubtedly, many other things, new items were being made, i.e. “finishing” took place. This allows us to think that the construction of the Little House, as Pavel Voinovich called a miniature copy of his apartment, began much earlier, in the 1820s, possibly at the time when Nashchokin lived in St. Petersburg, as evidenced by one of the contemporaries of Nashchokin and Pushkin in his memoirs: “All the best St. Petersburg society of that time came to this house... to admire, however, there was something to admire.”
In 1830, Pushkin wrote the poem “Housewarming”, no doubt addressed to Nashchokin:
I bless the housewarming,
Where is your idol at home?
You suffered - and with it the fun,
Free labor and sweet peace.
You are happy: you are your own little house,
Keeping the custom of wisdom,
Sluggish from evil worries and laziness
Insured as if from fire.
An acquaintance of Pushkin and Nashchokin, writer A.F., wrote about how the model was filled with things. Veltman. In his story “Not a house, but a toy!” a scene is presented when the hero - the “master”, that is, Nashchokin - distributes orders to the craftsmen. A “forte drunkard” comes to him, followed by a furniture maker, then a clerk from a “crystal” store. “For one master ordered luxurious Rococo furniture in the seventh measure compared to the real one, for another in the same measure - all the dishes, all the service, decanters, glasses, shaped bottles for all kinds of wines.
Thus began the construction and furnishing of a toy, not a house. A painter I knew took it upon himself to put up an art gallery of works by the best artists. Cutlery was ordered from the knife factory, table linen was ordered from the linen factory, utensils for the kitchen were ordered from the coppersmith, in a word, all the artists and craftsmen, manufacturers and breeders received orders from the master for equipment and furnishings for a rich boyar's house at one-seventh the usual rate.
“The master did not spare and did not spare money. So, not a house is ready, but a toy. It costs almost more than the real thing...”
Veltman probably knew from the words of Pavel Voinovich himself that the Little House cost him 40 thousand rubles. Note that for this amount at that time it was possible to purchase a real mansion.
The architectural shell of the Nashchokinsky house has not reached us. No images or descriptions of his appearance earlier than 1866 have survived, and later descriptions are contradictory and not always accurate. The most reliable, although also not without memory errors, must be considered the testimonies of P. V. Nashchokin’s contemporaries - N. I. Kulikov and V. V. Tolbin. The last one remembered “This house... was an oblong regular quadrangle, framed by Bohemian mirror glass, and formed two compartments, upper and lower. In the upper one there was a continuous dance hall with a table in the middle, set for sixty couverts. the lower floor consisted of living quarters and was filled with everything that was required for some grand ducal palace.”
The artist Sergei Aleksandrovich Galyashkin, organizer of the exhibition of the Nashchokinsky house in St. Petersburg and Moscow (1910-1911), made an attempt to recreate the model. Obviously, following Tolbin’s description given above, he built a wooden house one and a half times human height, in the rooms of which: the living room, dining room, office and others - he placed the things of the Little House that had survived by that time. After 1917, the Nashchokinsky house was exhibited in Moscow at the State Historical Museum (until 1937), at the All-Union Pushkin Exhibition of 1937 and at the State Museum of A. S. Pushkin (1938-1941). During the Great Patriotic War he was evacuated to Tashkent. From 1952 to 1964, the model was on display at the All-Union Museum of A. S. Pushkin in Leningrad, located in the halls of the Hermitage. The house was presented without an architectural frame, only in the form of interiors made up of things that have come down to us. In them, which had the character of theatrical decorations, the painting of the walls, the modeling of the ceilings, and the parquet floors were made as close as possible to the style of the 1830s.
The model, exhibited in the church wing of the Catherine Palace in the city of Pushkin (1967-1988), was fundamentally different from the previous ones in the conditionally neutral decoration of the walls, ceilings, floors, doors, etc., were painted white, which deliberately emphasized the innocence of such decoration to the original one, and thus the attention of museum visitors was focused on the original things of the Nashchokinsky house.
Now the model of the Nashchokinsky house is on display at the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg.
Judging by the set of surviving miniature objects, we can definitely say that the House had rooms typical of a noble apartment: a living room or hall, a dining room, a pantry, an office, a billiard room, a bedroom, a boudoir, a nursery, a kitchen, and utility rooms. It is very possible that this list also included the so-called Pushkin room - a copy of the one that Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina spoke about in her memoirs: “I had the good fortune to receive Alexander Sergeevich at my home. There was even a special room for him on the top floor, next to my husband’s office. It was called Pushkinskaya.” There is an opinion that the furniture for Nashchokin’s House was “made by Gumbs.” The furniture of the Nashchokinsky house is distinguished by technical excellence and excellent craftsmanship, testifying to the impeccable taste of the customer.
Let's start with the living room. It houses tables, a sofa, a couch, chairs, banquettes, footstools, candelabra, floor lamps, sconces, mirrors. It is difficult to decide which thing is better made than a mahogany floor lamp, the surface of which is covered with thin delicate rosettes and carved patterns with Gothic motifs, and the top of the rod is decorated a turned vase made of white bone, or a light but stable chair of typical Russian design, with the so-called side frame. Its smooth surface is devoid of decoration, but how elegant is the smooth silhouette of slightly curved legs and a cut-out back. Armchairs decorated with carvings are not inferior in beauty and subtlety of decoration to slender floor lamps, screens, or elegant mirrors. The polish on the outside and inside of the objects has not worn off with time or faded; you will open a drawer of a table or sideboard and admire the finish - your fingers are caressed by the mirror surface of lovingly treated wood.
In those years when the House was created, Nashchokin changed apartments and, obviously, the furnishings several times. There were even cases when, according to the memoirist, in the house of the bankrupt Nashchokin, the stoves were heated with mahogany furniture. But, having become rich once again, Pavel Voinovich acquired new things for his apartment<…>
The tastes of Nashchokin, a connoisseur of painting, were reflected in the selection of works in the Little House art gallery. The living room, study and other rooms were decorated with small copies of paintings by Western European artists. Their names remained unknown for a long time. Hermitage employees Maria Illarionovna Shcherbacheva, a specialist in Dutch painting, and Anna Grigorievna Barskaya, an expert in the art of French painters, helped in the search for information about them. Now there are eleven paintings in the House, but there were, of course, much more. Framed in gilded frames, they give the impression of real works of painting.
The objects that filled the interiors organically combined expediency and convenience, rationalism and utilitarianism with beauty. A large three-tier gilded bronze chandelier hung in the living room.
The other two, paired bronze chandeliers with 18 candles (each 9 in diameter), apparently hung in the dining room or living room. In addition, the decoration of the front rooms was complemented by elegant bronze candelabra (height 15) in the form of columns topped with torches, with four horns for candles, as well as stenniks, or sconces, - typical lighting fixtures of that time.
There is no reliable information, but judging by the brilliance and perfection with which the bronze products were made, it is quite possible to assume that among the craftsmen who worked on Nashchokin’s order was the famous French bronzer Pierre Philippe Thomire.
From Tolbin’s memoirs we learn that silver chandeliers also hung in the living room of the Nashchokinsky house. Their fate is unknown, but, fortunately, the silver candlesticks that Pushkin admired survived. Several pairs of traditionally shaped (in the form of balusters) silver candlesticks of different sizes have survived. The height of the smallest ones is 2 centimeters. Wax candles (diameter 0.3, length 2) were cast especially for these candlesticks, sconces, and candelabra.
Oil lamps came into use in the 1830s. They were called kenkets, or kenkets, after the name of the inventor, the Frenchman Kenke. They consist of two parts: an oil reservoir and a burner with holes for gas outlet. The oil was poured through a narrow brass tube into the burner. As in modern kerosene lamps, the wick was covered with a cylindrical glass, onto which a lampshade was placed - a frosted ball with a pattern around the circumference. Depending on the need, the lighting was increased or decreased, but not by weakening the fire (such a device was not yet known), but by moving the lamp hanging on a special bar placed on the rod of the floor lamp. Using a screw, the bar together with the lamp was raised or lowered closer to the place where brighter light was needed. There are several such lamps in the House. Kenquet lamps are made of gilded bronze. One of them is tabletop, the rest are hanging: double and single, with one horn.
In Nashchokin's Little House there is a rare thing, inseparable from candles - the so-called Tula steel pliers for cutting off burnt wicks and removing wax.
Nashchokin was famous as a most generous person and hospitable person. “He (Nashchokin. - G.N.) was a great hunter for ordering dinners and talking about food, he treated his guests until they dropped... he invited people to dinners several days in advance, and on the day of dinner he sent a butler to remind them so that they would not forget.” .
The dining room and pantry are by no means secondary rooms in the Little House. The main piece of furniture in the first one is the centipede dining table. Although not forty, but twenty slender legs, carved in the form of balusters, shod with brass shoes with wheels instead of soles, support the table board with rounded edges. According to N.I. Kulikov, “... the extendable dining table was worked by Gumbs.”
In apartments of Pushkin's time, next to the dining room there was usually a pantry, or buffet, as they said at that time, ready-made food was brought here from the kitchen.
From the pantry furnishings in the House, two simple quadrangular serving tables (height 14), covered with tablecloths, presumably ordered from Holland, and a pantry cabinet, which housed a variety of dishes, have been preserved. There was a napkin press in the pantry or linen room. Pushkin, in a letter to his wife, described a comic dinner in the dining room of the Nashchokinsky house: “they served a mouse in sour cream with horseradish in the form of a pig. It’s a pity there were no guests.” And probably that day the table was decorated with a dinner service of white porcelain with gilding, a soup bowl, a dish for pies, a gravy boat, deep and shallow plates made at the porcelain factory of A. G. Popov in the village of Gorbunovo near Moscow. On the bottoms of each item there is a blue underglaze brand of the manufactory .
The House's silverware was kept in the cellar. The word “cellar” is purely Russian, from the verb - to bury, hide. Silver utensils were placed in such a chest, which were taken on the road along with a travel samovar, dishes for lunch and tea. The cellar contained spoons, forks, knives, pie spatulas, ladle, napkin rings and even candlesticks.
The dinner table setting included bottles, decanters for vinegar, oil, etc. They were inserted into the holders of silver vessels with a shaped handle that was easy to carry. In the Little House, tiny glasses (height 2.3), glasses of white and purple glass (height 3.3), and green glass in the shape of a lily of the valley flower with a twisted stem (height 3) miraculously survived.
According to the memoirist, “the vaulted basement under the house contained a cellar in which< ..>all sorts of expensive wines were stored, sealed abroad.”
The furnishings of the house, even dilapidated ones, were often preserved as treasures of a bygone era, and kitchen utensils, when they became unusable, were thrown away. The remaining kitchen utensils from the House are enough to cook a whole meal! That is why it is of particular interest for studying the economic life of Pushkin’s time, especially since many of the items have long gone out of use.
Numerous kitchen utensils have been preserved in the House: several copper pots of different sizes lined inside (the diameter of one of them is 7.8; height 2), deep and shallow frying pans (the diameter of one of them is 5; height 3.5), a fish bowl with a slotted bottom for steaming (height 2.8; length 12.2); waffle iron, similar to tongs with long handles, so that it is convenient to insert it into the oven; stewpan - a cast iron pot for stewing meat on three high legs to prevent it from burning, with a narrow spout for draining the sauce; pots - in them they cooked porridge, potatoes, steamed vegetables, heated milk; korchaga - a larger pot than others for cabbage soup, kvass or beer; bowls, basins, mortars and pestles, pie sheets, spice boxes, colanders, nutcrackers, cake and ice cream molds.
As you know, in Pushkin’s time, in order to cook food or prepare tea, it was necessary to light the oven or stove and, as they said in the old days, “put on a samovar.”
V.I. Dal explains the word samovar as “a water-heating vessel for tea, a vessel with a pipe and a brazier inside.” At that time, this ingenious “vessel” was used everywhere, and it became almost an essential item in the household. Is it possible to imagine a noble estate of Pushkin’s time, an apartment of an official, a craftsman, a wealthy peasant’s hut, a postal station, a tavern without a samovar? He was a symbol of home comfort and hospitality. They rarely drank tea alone. After all, setting up a samovar was a slow and troublesome task: bring water (sometimes a whole bucket), stock up on coals, prick a splinter, put it in the chimney, set it on fire to heat the coals, fan the fire... And so it makes noise, grumbles, puffs - calling to you for a treat. “The samovar is boiling - it doesn’t tell you to leave,” says the proverb.
From the memoirs of Vera Alexandrovna Nashchokina it is known that the poet himself loved to drink tea and drank a lot of tea. Contemporaries tell how, while passing through Torzhok, Pushkin saw a samovar with a tap in the shape of an eagle’s head. The poet asked the hostess for permission to fill the glass himself in order to turn this fancy tap. One must think that the samovars of the Nashchokinsky house also aroused the keen interest of Pushkin, who was attentive to things.
Among the household utensils of the Little House, five samovars have been preserved: one copper and four silver. The biggest one is especially good. Traces of scale are visible on the inner walls: water was once boiled in it!
The tea is ready, next to the samovar there are beautiful silver and porcelain dishes. The characteristic finish of silver tableware is gilding. Without exaggeration, Domika's large tea set can be called a wonderful piece of jewelry
Porcelain cups and saucers from the tea set, which, unfortunately, have not reached us in their entirety, are also gilded. The delicate, fawn color of the porcelain is shaded with gold, which covers the inner surface of the cups, handles, and saucers.
Speaking about the silverware of the Nashchokinsky house, one cannot fail to mention another tea set. Prosperous houses had several samovars. So in Nashchokin’s House, in addition to those that we have described, three more very similar silver samovars have been preserved. All of them have an egg-shaped shape typical of the 1820s - 1930s. In all likelihood, each of them had its own set, but only one set of tea utensils has reached us - the Small Service. There is only one cup and saucer. If there were no losses here, then we can assume that this service is for one person. The Small Service includes another item that has almost completely disappeared from our everyday life - a plate for pies - a kind of tray on high legs in the form of curls. In the Nashchokinsky house there are several silver and copper trays for various purposes. The largest of the silver trays (length 17) is bordered along the side with a chased floral design composed of flowers and leaves; along the edge of the smaller one there is a smooth, wavy line of the ornament, which is called “wave”. Among the dishes of the House, a silver and gilded spoon-strainer survived. The tea leaves were shaken out into a rinse bowl, and the spoon was placed on a bronze tray specially designed for it. At that time, coffee was not as widespread as in our time, but, of course, there was always coffee at the table of Nashchokin, Pushkin, Onegin. Nashchokin ordered for his House a silver cone-shaped coffee pot (height 4.5) with a handle in the form of stems and leaves, a taganchik with a tripod in the middle (height 2.8) and a spirit lamp (diameter 1).
Note that in the kitchen facilities of the House there is a special frying pan (diameter 7.5) for roasting coffee beans. On top it has an almost solid metal lid with a small hole, designed to prevent the grains heated on the fire from jumping out. Inside the frying pan there is a spatula, which, with the help of a handle extending to the top, mixes the grains so that they are evenly toasted. There is no doubt that there was also a tiny coffee mill in the Little House, but apparently it disappeared along with other priceless little things during the years of the model’s wanderings.
Understanding the structure of a samovar or spirit lamp, admiring the beauty of dishes and household utensils, you see how much skill, ingenuity, and taste the silversmiths, tinsmiths, coppersmiths, and skilled artisans put into these miniature objects. There is nothing superfluous or intrusive in their decoration, ornaments, patterns.
Almost all silver items were made for the House by Moscow jewelers. Evidence of this is the stamp with the coat of arms of Moscow depicting St. George the Victorious. Using a magnifying glass, you can detect personal and annual marks on silver samovars, trays, and plates that have become darkened and covered with the patina of time. One of them looks like this: N.D. 1834.
In 1969, the then famous specialist in the field of applied art, Marina Mikhailovna Postnikova-Loseva, established that these letters mean the first and last name of the master of the Moscow Assay Office, Nikolai Dubrovin. Let us not lose hope that over time other secrets will be revealed; we will learn the names of other miracle masters who have “shoeed” more than one “flea” in Nashchokin’s Little House.
It is difficult to imagine the house or apartment of a nobleman, landowner, rich official of Pushkin's time without a piano or its less advanced brothers - the harpsichord and clavichord. The Domika piano is a truly royal instrument in all respects.
According to the stories of contemporaries, this “Lilliputian” piano was played by Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina, the wife of Pavel Voinovich, with the help of knitting needles, since even her thin fingers did not fit on the keys. A skilled musician, a student of the famous composer John Field, she recalled how Pushkin often asked her to play the piano and “... listened to her play for hours and hours...”.
Both friends, Pushkin and Nashchokin, loved music. There is evidence that Pavel Voinovich, being a fan of Franz Liszt, not only attended his concerts in Moscow, but also made a special trip to St. Petersburg so as not to miss the evening organized in honor of the composer.
Of course, there was a guitar in the Little House. Its presence in the Nashchokinsky house also reflects the life of the 1830s. The sounds of the guitar, like the piano, invariably enlivened the living room of a city or landowner's house, where they listened to chamber music, romances and folk songs, so popular at that time. Such associations are born when you see the piano or guitar of the Nashchokinsky house. According to the memoirists, there was also a harp in the House - a product of the then famous Parisian factory Erard. Unfortunately, it has not reached us.
In May 1836, on his last visit to Moscow, Pushkin wrote to his wife, “Only Nashchokin loves me, but my rival is tinter.” The poet called the card game “the greatest passion” of Nashchokin, Pushkin and the heroes of his works experienced the power of this, sometimes “disastrous” passion
In Nashchokin's Little House, of course, there are cards and card tables, which form an integral part of the furniture. While playing cards in the Nashchokin House, tricks were written down on the green cloth of the card table with crayons in beaded cases so that the fingers would not get dirty, and then these notes were erased with brushes; unfortunately, like the crayons, they were lost. Sometimes an open card table was used as a regular one. An example of this is the already mentioned painting by N. I. Podklyuchnikov “The Living Room in the Nashchokins’ House,” where a card table with a tea cup and saucer standing on it is clearly visible.
In Pushkin's time, billiards was widespread and loved, since, unlike board games, it contributed to warm-up and relaxation during a sedentary lifestyle. The billiards of the Nashchokinsky house avoided the losses suffered by some other miniature things. The slate board (16.4 x 8.7) hanging on the wall of the billiard room for notes, with semicircular cups for crayons and sponges, has been preserved.
According to the memoirist, Nashchokin was a big fan of billiards. “He went almost every day to the English club, ordered an expensive cue from Paris, which was kept under the savings of a marker.” Pushkin also loved this game. I. I. Pushchin in his “Notes” recalls Pushkin’s disgraced house in Mikhailovsky: “There was billiards in the hall, this could have served as entertainment for him (Pushkin - G.N.).” The House has attributes of another outdoor game - shuttlecock. The shuttlecock of the Nashchokinsky house (2.5 x 1) has a cork covered with blue velvet. With him are two rackets, reminiscent of tennis ones. V.I. Dahl's dictionary gives a description of the shuttlecock: “a cork rounded at one end with a feather crown at the other end, a fly, it is hit by throwing up a racket or a bast.” The game of shuttlecock is the prototype of modern badminton, the entrance of which is made of plastic and has no feathers. Nowadays, it is unlikely that even in museums one can find objects used in this ancient game.
Memoirists say that in the Nashchokinsky house there was a whole arsenal of weapons. Only one “combat box” with a pair of pistols has reached us. You press the white bone button of the lock and the lid of the ebony box opens. Unlike the flintlock pistols of the French master Lepage, described in Eugene Onegin, the design of the Nashchokin pistols is somewhat different, more advanced. These are so-called capsule pistols. In flint weapons, gunpowder was ignited by a spark generated by the impact of the flint on a steel plate - a flint. The pistols made to order by Nashchokin for Domik used a primer - a cap (or tube) with an explosive mixture inside. When the trigger hit the primer, a shot followed. A capsule pistol (also called a piston pistol) resembles modern toy pistols, which fire when the trigger hits the piston. If Onegin's were loaded from the muzzle, then Nashchokin's were loaded from the treasury located inside the barrel, where the bullet and charge were inserted. Having unscrewed the barrel, they put a bullet wrapped in a plaster (a cloth rag soaked in lard) into the “treasury” so that powder gases would not leak down the barrel. Then they inserted a chamber (the prototype of a modern cartridge) - a powder charge placed in a cylinder like a cartridge case - and hammered it with a wad so that the gunpowder did not scatter. Having loaded the pistol in this way, they screwed the barrel back on by hand, and then tightened it with a screwdriver. After this, they pulled the trigger to the safety cock and put the primer on the primer - a protrusion with a hole, from which, when the trigger hit the primer and the explosion of the explosive mixture contained in it, fire entered the pistol. To secure the capsule, a second screwdriver was used - the handle of the bullet gun. Now you need to pull the trigger all the way. In this case, the lower trigger (trigger) automatically pops out; when you lightly press it, the mechanism will work: the upper trigger will hit the primer, the explosive mixture will explode, the fire will enter the chamber through the hole in the primer, the gunpowder will ignite, and the bullet will fly out of the barrel. So the gun is loaded. The index finger is on the trigger, the hand is extended forward... Now let's take aim... However, our pistol does not have a front sight. What is this? Master's omission? No. The work was completed flawlessly. And the “error” is explained by the fact that this is a road pistol - unlike a dueling pistol, it does not have one, since it was intended for point-blank shooting. In those days, travel was often unsafe. Sometimes the traveler was attacked by wolves and robbers. It was for this occasion that they took loaded pistols on the road. They were taken out of the box in advance and kept ready in their pockets so that they could shoot almost without aiming.
Compared to the furniture, decorations, dishes and other things, there are few items of clothing and shoes left in the Nashchokinsky house - in total, if we speak in museum accounting language, four items: a top hat, two cocked hats and over the knee boots. In his early youth, living in St. Petersburg, Nashchokin at one time served in the Cavalry Regiment. He was probably reminded of that time by the miniature boots - high cavalry boots with hard tops, with a wide bell at the top and a popliteal cutout, made according to his whim.
The felt cocked hat from the Nashchokinsky house brings to mind Pushkin and the sad episodes of his life. By the new year, 1834, by the will of Emperor Nicholas I, the poet received the title of chamber cadet, which obligated him to appear at palace ceremonies and attend balls. The poet did not like to wear the uniform of a chamber cadet. The words of the writer V. A. Sollogub are filled with sympathy: “I saw Pushkin in uniform only once, at the Peterhof festival... From under his triangular hat his face seemed mournful, stern and pale. Tens of thousands of people saw him not in the glory of the first national poet, but in the category of novice courtiers.”
A plush top hat with slightly curved brims, fashionable in the 1830s, has also survived to this day in good preservation. In the painting by G. G. Chernetsov “Parade on Tsaritsyn Meadow” one can see many of Pushkin’s contemporaries, and he himself is represented in the center of a group of writers: I. A. Krylov, N. I. Gnedich, V. A. Zhukovsky, N. I. Grech, cylinder - an indispensable detail of the costume of each of them.
It is known that Pushkin loved to walk. While living in St. Petersburg, he took walks to Tsarskoe Selo, and his constant companion was always a stick. Pushkin’s self-portrait is expressive, where he presented himself with a heavy iron stick. Now it is in the Pushkin Museum-Reserve in the village of Mikhailovskoye. Three canes are also kept in the Nashchokinsky house. You don’t know which of the canes from the Nashchokinsky house to give preference to: a cherry tree cane, an elegant ebony cane with flutes, or a third one with an amber knob. We do not know whether Nashchokin loved horse riding. But Pushkin was an excellent rider. Horseback riding was always a need and a pleasure for Pushkin: it saved him from the boredom and monotony of rural life in the solitude of Mikhailovsky or Boldino.
One of the unique items of the House is an English racing saddle on a trestle stand with a hanger for harness. The owner's office was one of the main rooms in the nobleman's house. Nashchokin also felt the need to have a secluded office, especially since his house was always open to invited and uninvited guests.
While in Moscow in December 1831 with Nashchokin, who was still single at that time, Pushkin wrote with some irritation to Natalya Nikolaevna about his friend’s disorderly life: “.. his (Nashchokin’s - G.N.) house is such a mess and a mess that your head is spinning. From morning to evening he has different people: players, retired hussars, students, solicitors, gypsies, spies, especially moneylenders. All free entry; everyone cares about him; everyone shouts, smokes a pipe, dines, sings, dances; there is no free corner..."
N.I. Kulikov recalled how Pavel Voinovich’s guests often stayed late with him and his servant Karl the Tadpole was obliged to put everyone to bed for the night, and the owner himself, having come home, quietly made his way between the sleeping people into his office. At times Nashchokin was burdened by such a life, but, weak-willed and weak-willed, he was unable to change it. He needed solitude, and the office was the only refuge where overnight stayers were not allowed, where he could take a break from the guests and indulge in his favorite pastime - reading.
Many contemporaries noted Nashchokin’s extraordinary intelligence, his wide knowledge, and impeccable taste. He was ahead of many in understanding and appreciating literature and art. At a time when everyone was reading the works of A. A. Marlinsky, he ridiculed the pomp and pretentiousness of his prose and in every possible way promoted the works of Balzac, still little known in Russia.
What Pavel Voinovich’s office was like helps to imagine the Nashchokinsky house. In any office, the desk is most important. There are three of them in the house. One of them stood, in all likelihood, in Pushkin’s room. The couch is a typical piece of office furniture. The House has two identical mahogany couches (length 33.5) with a curved back and legs, one of them is in the office.
Books were usually kept in the study, but, in all likelihood, there was a library in Pavel Voinovich’s apartment, as in many noble houses. The famous Soviet bibliophile Fyodor Grigorievich Shilov wrote: “I managed to accidentally acquire a very valuable library of Pushkin’s friend, P.V. Nashchokin. The books were wonderful... mostly from the library of grandfather Nashchokin.” There is information in the literature about miniature books from the Nashchokinsky house, printed using a specially made font. The unique books and font disappeared without a trace. This is one of the biggest losses of the Lodge.
In the office of the Nashchokinsky house there is a shelf for books (height 9.5, length 15.5). At one time, when Pushkin’s office in Mikhailovskoye was being recreated after the war, a new one was made to replace the lost bookshelf, modeled after the Nashchokin one. When reading, they usually kept a special knife at hand, since books came out of the printing house with uncut pages. In the office of the Little House, on the desk there is a similar ivory knife (length 5.9). The miniature house had several screens. Usually the screen was placed near the bed or couch; it not only blocked out drafts, but also created a cozy intimate corner. There was also a screen - also a typical object of that time. It was placed in front of a blazing fireplace, if the fire produced too much heat, or in front of a cold fireplace, so that its “vent” was not visible. As a rule, the screen was a square wooden frame on legs with a fabric drapery or beadwork stretched over it, similar to that found in the Nashchokinsky house. Judging by the surviving miniature screen (height 21.5), there was also a real fireplace in the House.
The office was often adjacent to the bedroom. She was also in the Nashchokinsky house. Of particular interest are the mahogany bed and the carved bone washbasin. The design of the bed (height 29, length 41) is convenient, it can be easily disassembled (the backrests are removed, the parts connecting them are separated, and it falls apart like a house of cards), it can be easily transported to a new place and just as easily and quickly assembled. Like the clothes, the blankets, pillows, feather beds, and bed linen have not been preserved, but the mattress pad, also made collapsible, is intact - in two parts, easily and tightly inserted into the bed frame. The mattress pad is stuffed with sea grass and covered with “trapeza”.
A washing device was familiar to the bedroom and office, where they also sometimes slept. It usually consisted of a jug of water and a basin, which were placed on a table covered with marble. A similar device is also available in the Little House (height 7.7, width 6.2).
Memoirists wrote that in Nashchokin’s House there were copies of Pavel Voinovich’s things: glasses in a case, slippers and even a chamber pot. The tiny ship, “on which only a Spanish fly could defecate,” has not been preserved, but two spittoons are in excellent condition, which could be used by “little, living men.” The mechanism of action of the spittoons is similar to the modern one: once you press the handle of the rod, a polished semicircular lid automatically opens over a brass basin inside a wooden walnut case standing on three ball feet. As needed, the basin was removed from the case, washed and put back in.
But let's return to the office again... On a special ebony stand, in sockets trimmed with bone, rest tiny pipes, which are put on long shanks made of different types of wood. An article dedicated to the exhibition of the Nashchokinsky House of 1911 in Moscow reports an interesting detail: “... a curious stand for pipes, the model of which the Art Theater was diligently and unsuccessfully looking for for its productions. Only now can we get acquainted with this detail of the past.”
Long intimate conversations between Nashchokin and Pushkin were usually accompanied by smoking. “Whenever we saw you, I would tell you a lot; A lot has accumulated for me this year that would not be a bad thing to talk about. On your couch, with a pipe in your mouth.”
Another thing that belonged to Pushkin is associated with the name of Nashchokin - an ink set. It is based on a book. In the center is a figure of a bare-chested black sailor made of black and gilded bronze, leaning on an anchor. By the new year, 1832, Nashchokin sent this device to Pushkin. The original inkwell is now one of the attractions of Pushkin’s office in his last apartment.
And on the desk of the Nashchokinsky house there is a silver inkstand. In the middle between the sandbox and the inkwell is a column with a hook on which hangs a bell for calling a servant. In the House there is another inkwell, oval in shape, carved from bone, with figures of a hare and a dog that is chasing him.
But what is an office without a clock? A gilded bronze mantel clock with a figure of Napoleon, typical of the era, is a highlight of the Little House. Many in Russia were under the spell of the personality of the legendary conqueror. Pushkin paid tribute to the greatness of the commander in his poetry. The cult of Napoleon was reflected in many of his images, including objects of applied art. An example of this is the clock from Nashchokin's House.
Among the poet's belongings was an inkwell in the shape of Napoleon's tomb. Now this relic is kept in the collections of the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin.
The Gothic mantel clock in Pushkin’s office, stopped by V.A. Zhukovsky at the moment of the poet’s death - at 2:45 pm on January 29, 1837, has reached us. Another silver pocket watch that belonged to Pushkin was given to Nashchokin after his death by Natalya Nikolaevna. He, in turn, presented them to N.V. Gogol, the most worthy successor of A. S. Pushkin. After Gogol's death, Pavel Voinovich, at the request of the students, donated the watch to Moscow University. Further paths led the relic to the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin. Vera Aleksandrovna Nashchokina claimed that Pushkin had this watch during the duel. But, going to the duel, the poet did not put on the ring given to him by Nashchokin... Once “Voynych” ordered two identical rings with turquoise. He wore one himself, and the other, worried about his friend’s life, he gave to Pushkin when he accompanied him to St. Petersburg from Moscow in the spring of 1836. This was their last meeting. The poet had a little more than eight months to live. V. A. Nashchokina recalled about the fate of the ring: “When Pushkin, after the fatal duel, was lying on his deathbed and his second Danzas came to him, the patient asked him to give him some small box. He took out a turquoise ring from it and, handing it to Danzas, said:
- Take and wear this ring. Our mutual friend, Nashchokin, gave it to me. This is a talisman against violent death." So, on the day of the duel with Dantes, Pushkin did not have this ring on his hand. Why? Maybe he didn’t want to defy fate? Did you seek death in a duel as a way out of your painful situation?
In the Nashchokinsky house there are two small caskets. One is mother-of-pearl, with a slotted ornament, trimmed with gold, the other is covered in leather, with a hook closure. In all likelihood, they contained very tiny jewelry for the little inhabitants of Nashchokin’s House.
But perhaps the greatest treasure of the Little House is the English grandfather clock (height 30.5). One can object by saying that such clocks were often found in the interiors of noble houses. Here in the Pushkin Museum-Apartment on Moika, 12, there are similar ones in the dining room. But the value of the miniature clock from the House lies in its memorial value. During the years of the Domik's wanderings, after Nashchokin mortgaged it and could not redeem it, the clock was silent for a long time; the mechanism broke down and the key for winding was lost. But, when in 1953 the House found its place in the museum, the author of these lines, at that time the custodian of the unique model, managed to find a master - Mikhail Afanasyevich Lapkin, who managed to repair this rare watch and made a new key. A miracle happened; the clock came to life and began to speak. Since then, they have been running smoothly for 47 years without requiring repairs. The plant lasts for a day and a half. And then a small hook opens, the top door of the case with convex glass opens, covering the dial, the key is inserted into the tiny hole of the silver disk. Then the lower door opens, behind which the pendulum is visible. A few turns of the key, a slight push that gives acceleration to the hands, and they begin to move, making their measured circle, a quiet but audible sound is heard, to which Pushkin listened. “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people.”
The lanes between Arbat and Prechistenka, in the figurative expression of Prince Peter Kropotkin, the Saint-Germain suburb of Moscow, have always attracted creative and unusual people. Among the local inhabitants there were and still are many big names. The famous Moscow madcaps also lived here, giving life in old Moscow a unique and beloved style of cheerful recklessness.
Pavel Nashchokin
One of the famous Moscow madcaps, Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin, lived in Gagarinsky Lane, corner of Nashchokinsky Lane, house number 4. In fact, Nashchokin changed addresses several times, but this one is the most famous, since Nashchokin’s great friend A.S. Pushkin often visited this hospitable house and even lived here from December 6 to December 24, 1831.
Arriving in Moscow, Pushkin took a cab and said: “To Nashchokin!”; no further clarification was required - all the cab drivers knew where Pavel Voinovich’s house was. True, the bohemian atmosphere in Nashchokin’s house seemed too vain even to Alexander Sergeevich, who, as is known, was not a supporter of excessive decorum and stiffness. This is how he described his impressions of Nashchokin’s house in a letter to his wife: “I’m bored here; Nashchokin is busy with business, and his house is such a mess and chaos that my head is spinning. From morning to evening he has different people: players, retired hussars, students, solicitors, gypsies, spies, especially lenders. Everyone has free entry; everyone needs it; everyone shouts, smokes a pipe, dines, sings, dances; there is no free corner - what to do?.. Yesterday Nashchokin gave us a gypsy evening; I so I’ve lost the habit of this, and the screaming of the guests and the singing of the gypsies still gives me a headache.”But although Pushkin allowed himself to grumble at Nashchokin in a friendly manner, they were united by the most faithful and devoted friendship. Nashchokin even became the godfather of Pushkin’s eldest son. He would have baptized his second son, but due to illness he could not come to St. Petersburg for the christening.
Pushkin and Nashchokin met back in Tsarskoe Selo - Alexander Sergeevich studied at the Lyceum, and Nashchokin studied at the Noble boarding school at the Lyceum, where Levushka Pushkin, the poet’s younger brother, was brought up with Pavel. Subsequently, Pushkin and Nashchokin met in St. Petersburg, but they truly became friends in Moscow when Pushkin returned from exile.
An open, generous, sincere character, and a penchant for kind eccentricities attracted different people to Nashchokin. Among his friends were V.A. Zhukovsky, E.A. Baratynsky, N.V. Gogol, V.G. Belinsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, actor M.S. Shchepkin, composers M.Yu. Vilyegorsky and A.N. Verstovsky, artists K.P. Bryullov and P.F. Sokolov... Contemporaries said that half of Moscow was related to Nashchokin, and the other half were his closest friends. N.V. Gogol wrote to Nashchokin: “...You have never lost your soul, you have never betrayed its noble movements, you were able to acquire the involuntary respect of worthy and intelligent people and at the same time the most sincere friendship of Pushkin.”
“Only Nashchokin loves me”, “Nashchokin is my only joy here,” Pushkin wrote from Moscow in letters to his wife. “...I’m chatting with him,” Pushkin asserted. Indeed, many recall their “endless conversations.” A variety of topics were raised - Pushkin read drafts of new works to Nashchokin and listened to his friend’s opinion, talking about the most secret impressions of his life and the movements of his soul. For example, only Nashchokin could Pushkin trust his terrible childhood impressions of the death of his brother Nikolai in 1807. (This death shocked eight-year-old Alexander. He told Nashchokin how he and his brother “quarreled and played; and when the baby got sick, Pushkin felt sorry for him, he approached the crib with sympathy; the sick brother, to tease him, stuck out his tongue at him and soon then died").
Nashchokin’s unbridled, passionate, but at the same time artistic nature constantly pushed him to unusual adventures. Once, having fallen in love with the beautiful actress Asenkova, he dressed up as a girl and joined his idol as a maid. (Pushkin used this story for the plot of “The House in Kolomna”). Nashchokin was either interested in alchemy or became involved with card sharpers. Having become interested in the gypsy singer Olya, he bought her from the gypsy choir for a lot of money and settled her in his house as his wife. Later Nashchokin got married to another woman. He met the illegitimate daughter of his distant relative, born of a serf maid, and fell in love. Pushkin advised his friend to get married and was at his wedding.
P.V. Nashchokin with his family, 1839
Nashchokin was an extraordinary storyteller. Pushkin, who considered his friend capable of writing and used the plots of his stories (for example, Nashchokin’s story about the robber-nobleman Ostrovsky suggested the plot of “Dubrovsky”), persuaded Pavel Voinovich to write at least memoirs about his eventful life. “What are your memories?” Pushkin asked his friend in a letter. “I hope you won’t abandon them. Write them in the form of letters to me. It will be more pleasant for me, and it will be easier for you too.” Pushkin was going to publish these “memories”, subjecting them to literary processing. But Nashchokin’s “Memoirs” were never completed, although the sheets with Pushkin’s edits were preserved. But... “He was sick of persistent work. Nothing came of his pen.”
Pushkin, finding himself in difficult circumstances, often turned to Nashchokin for help, and it happened that he himself helped him out in financial matters. Actor N.I., who knew Nashchokin closely. Kulikov recalled that Nashchokin “lived precisely according to the broad Russian-lordly nature, and, wherever necessary, he did good, helping the poor, and gave loans to those who asked, never demanding repayment and being content only with voluntary return.” Friends were never afraid to lend money to Nashchokin himself. Pushkin, being in the most cramped circumstances before his marriage, was forced to mortgage 200 souls of serfs. However, from the amount received, he allocated 10,000 rubles to lend to Nashchokin. In a letter to Pletnev, talking about the distribution of his meager income for a nobleman getting married, he mentions: “10,000 to Nashchokin to help him out of bad circumstances: sure money.” The amount of the deposit received was quickly sold out; ordering a decent tailcoat for the wedding was expensive. Pushkin got married in the tailcoat of Pavel Nashchokin. Eyewitnesses mentioned that the poet was buried in the same wedding coat after the fatal duel.
"Little House" by Nashchokin
Nashchokin’s main eccentricity, not understood by his contemporaries, and only appreciated by his descendants, is the famous “little house”. Dreaming of preserving the memory of the interiors of his house, associated with the name of Pushkin and other great guests, Nashchokin ordered a model of the rooms of his mansion with all the furnishings. The house, measuring 2.5 by 2 meters, was made of mahogany. It housed two residential floors and a semi-basement. Exact copies of furnishings were ordered from the best factories and workshops of that time, only their proportions were greatly reduced in comparison with the originals.
Dining table and dishes from Nashchokin's house (compared to actual size tableware)
“Imagining people to be the size of the average height of children’s dolls,” wrote N.I. Kulikov, “based on this scale, he ordered the first masters all the accessories for this house: the general’s boots on lasts were made by the best St. Petersburg shoemaker Paul; a piano of seven and a half octaves - Wirth; ... the furniture, the extendable dining table were made by Gumbs; tablecloths, napkins, everything that was needed for 24 kuverts - everything was made in the best factories."
Dining room from Nashchokin's house
The table in the dining room was set in the most exquisite way - slender purple glasses, green tulip-shaped wine glasses, silverware, samovars. The walls of the house were decorated with paintings in gilded frames. An elegant beaded cushion was thrown onto the living room sofa. A bronze chandelier with crystal, a card table with cards, billiards, candlesticks with candles - everything you need for life.
Small living room
Pushkin was delighted with this idea. In December 1831, he wrote to his wife: “His house (remember?) is being finished; what candlesticks, what service! He ordered a piano that a spider could play, and a ship that could only be used by a Spanish fly.” In another letter, Pushkin noted: “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people!”
Pushkin visiting Nashchokin examines objects from a small house
Having listened to the opinion of his friend, Pavel Voinovich settled in the house also little men - miniature doubles of Pushkin, Gogol, himself, ordered from a porcelain factory in St. Petersburg...
Figurine of Pushkin in the Nashchokino house (this is no longer the original porcelain Pushkin, but a later plaster reconstruction)
This idea was very expensive for Nashchokin. According to rough estimates - 40 thousand rubles, because all the miniature items were unique and made to order. (For that kind of money you could buy a real house in Moscow, but Nashchokin still lived in rented mansions, changing his address from time to time). Contemporaries were surprised that he “spent tens of thousands of rubles to build a two-arshine toy - the Nashchokinsky house.” And for us now this toy is a priceless monument to Moscow life in Pushkin’s times. The Nashchokinsky house is located as an exhibit in the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg.
Billiards in Nashchokin's house
It is great happiness that the house survived, although its fate was dramatic. Nashchokin’s financial situation, like everything in his life, flowed from one extreme to another - he was throwing away thousands, then he didn’t have a few rubles to buy firewood in the winter and he stoked the stoves with mahogany furniture. Once, “at a difficult moment in his life,” he was forced to mortgage his beloved house and... could not buy it back on time. The house disappeared for a long time, wandering through other people's hands and antique shops...
Desk from the Nashchokino house (in comparison with real medium-sized books)
The relic was found only at the beginning of the twentieth century. The artists Golyashkin brothers bought the house from the last owner. Sergei Aleksandrovich Golyashkin restored it, supplemented some of the lost items, and presented it to the public in 1910. The house was exhibited in St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. At that time, journalist S. Yablonovsky wrote: “The more you look at this house, at its furnishings, at its inhabitants, the more you begin to understand that this is not a toy, but magic, which at a time when there were no photographs, no cinema, it stopped the moment and gave us a piece of the past in such completeness and with such perfection that it becomes eerie.”
Office in the Nashchokino house
The same office with an unfolded desk and a screen by the bed
"You are happy: you are your own little house,
Keeping the custom of wisdom,
Sluggish from evil worries and laziness
Insured as if from fire," -
Which of the Nashchokino houses - real or toy - should these lines be attributed to?
The new facade (“case house”) made by S.A. Golyashkin for the Nashchokino house in 1910
So, Nashchokin had to change his Moscow addresses several times, where he rented apartments, and one of the most famous addresses of Pavel Voinovich was the house of the Ilyinsky sisters in Gagarinsky Lane. The house on the corner of Gagarinsky and Nashchokinsky lanes is now marked with a memorial plaque. But the fate of the mansion is mysterious - some guidebooks to Moscow and Pushkin's places claim that the house has been preserved and carefully restored, others are categorical - Nashchokin's house has not been preserved. However, in Gagarinsky Lane at the indicated address there is a two-story mansion, the architecture of which is clearly marked by the stamp of post-fire development of the mid-1810s...
The fact is that the real Nashchokino mansion had become so dilapidated by the 1970s that it was decided to dismantle it and build a new one, “following the model and likeness of the one that was on this site 160 years ago.” (S. Romanyuk “From the history of Moscow lanes”).
Mansion in the early 1970s before reconstruction
True, during the reconstruction the second, wooden floor was replaced with a brick one, but in general the restorers tried to adhere to the old project and even partially restored the interior design of the rooms, guided by the surviving details and the Nashchokin “model”. The reconstructed mansion first housed the Society for the Preservation of Monuments. Nowadays there is the Nashchokinsky Cultural Center - an exhibition and small concert hall.
And another Arbat address where Nashchokin lived - Bolshoy Nikolopeskovsky Lane, building No. 5 - remains only in memory. The old mansion where Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin had his apartment no longer exists.
By the way, Nashchokinsky Lane received its name not in memory of Pavel Voinovich, but because the estate of his ancestors, the Nashchokin boyars, was once located here. In Soviet times, Nashchokinsky Lane was called Furmanov Street - the author of "Chapaev" lived here in one of the houses.
I came from St. Petersburg on the occasion of the anniversary of the Moscow Museum of A.S. Pushkin (60 years).
But what exactly are we talking about? You can say the same about a toy. It belonged to Pushkin’s friend Pavel Nashchokin.
Well, here it is: at some point (financially prosperous, which did not always happen to Pavel Voinovich), Pushkin’s friend came up with a strange whim: to make a copy of his house, with all the furniture and other things that were in it, the size of one seventh magnitude. And imagine, I actually ordered the entire furnishings - not external copies, but completely functional items. Only tiny ones.
The piano, by the way, was also real - according to the testimony of one of his contemporaries, Nashchokin’s wife even played it - with the help of knitting needles.
Miniature copies of paintings were made for the house. And also everything that was required for billiards (I wonder if you tried playing it?).
All household utensils were also made in miniatures. (From Pushkin’s letter to Natalya Nikolaevna, about his visit to Nashchokin: “His house (remember?) is being finished off; what kind of candlesticks, what kind of service! He ordered a piano that a spider could play on...")
And here you have Pushkin himself visiting the owner - clearly reading something new.
This figure was subsequently made into a copy at the Imperial Porcelain Factory.
The house gained considerable popularity in Moscow at that time; people went specially to see it. But what happened next to his fate?
Alas, alas. The frivolous owner, having once again lost, mortgaged the house but never bought it back. The curious toy passed from one antiquarian to another, gradually its parts became scattered. And most importantly, the house itself, which reproduced a two-story city mansion, disappeared.
By the way, which one exactly? Museum workers studied Nashchokin's Moscow addresses - and there were a lot of them. Here is a house in Gagarinsky Lane.
Here on Bolshaya Polyanka.
Here in Vorotnikovsky Lane. And all of them, mind you, are two-story - how can you tell?
Returning to the fate of the contents: the artist Sergei Galyashkin took up the matter at the beginning of the 20th century - he came across some of the items from an antique dealer, and he searched for another part (unfortunately, not all) on purpose. In 1910, the house he restored was demonstrated in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow and Tsarskoye Selo. Photographs of this reconstruction have been preserved.
After 1917, the house ended up in the Historical Museum. In 1937 it was demonstrated at the All-Union Pushkin Exhibition. During the war it was evacuated, and the architectural frame recreated by Galyashkin was lost. Well, now he lives in the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg - from where he came to Moscow.
Moscow museum workers, of course, supplemented the exhibition with their own materials. Here is a portrait of Nashchokin’s wife Vera Alexandrovna.
There are a lot of different things from the Nashchokin family, among which is a fan depicting frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The furniture (this time full-size) is also from the Nashchokins’ Moscow apartment.
And this is an image of the living room in the Nashchokinsky house (the real one) by the artist Nikolai Podklyuchnikov. The inhabitants of the house themselves are also there.
Pay attention to this bust in the painting that came from St. Petersburg. Doesn't remind you of anyone?
So the Moscow museum people decided that it was reminiscent and placed their own bust by Ivan Vitali closer.
Well, the exhibition “Nashchokinsky House” opened in the main building of the A.S. Pushkin Museum on Prechistenka. 168 miniature objects were brought to it (initially there were up to six hundred of them, a little more than half have survived). The exhibition will last until December.
Exhibition halls on the 1st floor
State Museum of A.S. Pushkin
st. Prechistenka, 12/2 (metro station "Kropotkinskaya")
Exhibition
“Nashchokinsky house - a trip to Moscow”
To the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin"
With the participation of the All-Russian Museum A.S. Pushkin
Exhibition time:
From October 4 to December 3, 2017
“My little house” - that’s what Pavel Voinovich Nashchokin called a miniature copy of his Moscow house. His friends who were abroad spoke with admiration about the long European tradition of creating dollhouses. Perhaps the works of the German romanticE. T. A. Hoffmann prompted Nashchokin to order copies of all the objects around him from famous masters. The furniture for the house was made in the famous workshop of the Gumbs brothers, the porcelain service was made at the A. Popov factory. The special value of these items is that they are working models of real things: you can boil water in a samovar, play a Fisher piano using knitting needles, or play a game of pyramid on billiards.
The creation of the house was witnessed by A.S. Pushkin, a friend of Nashchokin. In letters to his wife from Moscow, the poet talked about his friend’s quirk. On December 8, 1831 he wrote: “His house (remember?) is being finished; what candlesticks, what service! he ordered a piano on which a spider could play, and a vessel on which only a Spanish fly could defecate.” A year later, Pushkin informed Natalya Nikolaevna: “I see Nashchokin every day. He had a feast in his house: they served a little mouse in sour cream with horseradish in the shape of a pig. It's a pity there were no guests. In terms of its spirituality, this house refuses you.” And on May 4, 1836: “Nashchokin’s house has been brought to perfection - the only thing missing is living people. How Masha (A.S. Pushkin’s daughter) would rejoice at them.”
But the house was never transferred to the Pushkin family. Soon after the poet's death, Nashchokin was forced to pawn it. The fate of this relic, which passed from one antique dealer to another, was complicated. Only half a century later it was discovered and restored by the artist and collector S. A. Galyashkin. He organized exhibitions: at the Academy of Sciences in 1910, then at the Moscow Literary and Artistic Circle and in Tsarskoye Selo for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov family in 1913.
In 1919, the house was requisitioned, brought to the building of the English Club, where the State Museum Fund was located, from where in 1922 it was transferred to the Museum of Old Moscow. After the merger of this museum with the Historical Museum in 1926, the relic became part of the collections of the Historical Museum.
In the year of the 100th anniversary of the death of Pushkin, the All-Union Pushkin Exhibition was opened, the materials of which became the basis of the newly formed A. S. Pushkin Museum. Having survived the evacuation, the house again appeared in the museum’s exhibition, housed in 17 halls of the State Hermitage.
The next milestone in the life of the house was the move to the church wing of the Catherine Palace in Pushkin in 1967. For 20 years, the Nashchokino house was located in one of the 27 halls of the exhibition “A. S. Pushkin. Personality, life and creativity."
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the poet, a new opportunity has arisen to present the house to the public in all its splendor in the literary exhibition of the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin, on Moika, 12.
In the 21st century, the house left St. Petersburg only once, to end up in Moscow on Vorotnikovsky Lane, where Nashchokin lived in the 19th century (in 2001 it housed the gallery “Nashchokin’s House”).
After a 16-year break, the house again traveled to Moscow, and for two months it will be exhibited in the exhibition halls of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin, on Prechistenka, 12.