Siberia | Russia

GloriousAltai Stone

The year of culturein Altai Region

Altai Regionis located in the southeast of Western

Siberia at the latitude of 50 … 55° N. and at the longitude of 77 … 87° W.

The extent of the territory from the west to the east is about 600 km, from

the north to the south — 400 km.The distance from Barnaul to Moscow is about 2940 km along the straight line.

An auto way is about 3400 km. Time zone: UTC+7:00, MSK+3.

CONTENTS

04 Ancient culture of the stone in Alta

10 Findings of mineralogists and mining engineers

20 XVIII century – the beginning of stonecutting art

34 The store of the stone

52 XIX Century – the century of the world fame of the Altai semi-precious stones

60 Modern artworks of Altai masters

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ANCIENT CUlTUrEOF ThE STONE IN AlTAI

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The most ancient traces of the habitation of the primitive men on the territory of pres-ent day Altai Region dates to more than half a million years.

During hundreds of millennia, stone was the main material that was used by people.

It is not for nothing that this period, the longest in the history, is called the Stone Age.

Tools made of stone were indispensable in wood processing, during hunting, in process-ing of the recovered produce and in produc-tion of the clothing of animal skins.

For stone tools production was required rocks that meet specific criteria, such as: ease of splitting, a sufficiently high hardness and wear resistance.

Mountain Kolyvan.

Karama site is the most ancient settlement of a human being in Altai Region. Human beings resided here about one million years ago.

Stone tools made by the inhabitants of Altai dozens of thousands years ago.

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Cave site of the people of the Stone Age Denisova Cave (Soloneshensky District) – internationally known object of cultural heritage of Russia.

Arrowheads made of quartz and jasper.

The Katun River in the vicinity of the archaeo-logical park «Crossroads of the worlds».

Hunting and fishing tackles made of stone, 4000-2000 years BC.

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On the territory of the eastern parts of Al-tai Region was widely used striped black and grey flint. The outcrop of such flint is usual in the valley of the Katun and the Biya Rivers.

Very often on ancient sites around there are founded tools of yellow, red and sea-green jasper.

It is fair to assume that during the Stone Age in Altai were founded and was used many of the currently known color ornamental stone deposits.

It is most likely that some of the ancient stone deposits have not been yet identified.

Besides of that, the tools were made of rock crystal, smokestone, calcedony, opal, siliceous schist and porphyry. In the late stone age of Altai are found multicolored tools.

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Ornamental stone deposits, found in ex-treme antiquity were used in the Bronze Age too.

In the tombs of different cultures massive arrowheads of color jaspers made by tradi-tional splitting technology are found.

At later periods ornamental stone was used mainly for production of jewelry that was to shine and delight the eye with its stone design.

An original illustration of the ancient his-tory of Altai is monumental sculpture of the Iron Age – the stone statues.

Culture of stone dressing has ancient roots and traditions. The level of professional-ism of the ancient masters of stone working depended on the complex of knowledge about the stone itself: the skills of search, selection and extraction of necessary raw materials, the ability to put the stone blank into desired shape.

Found by archaeologists stone statues, rods with realistic images of people and animals̀ heads on them, carvings, drawings on pebbles and ancient images on the rocks amaze by the skill and quality of performance.

Stone pillars in the Valley of the Senteleck River (Charyshsky district) near “royal” burial mound, VII-VI centuries BC.

A stone sculpture of ancient Turkic period (VI-XII century AD). Altai State Museum of Regional Study.

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FINdINgS OF MINErAlOgISTSANd MININg ENgINEErS

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Before the beginning of the XVIII century the territory of present day Altai remained beyond the holdings of the Russian Empire. In 1710-s at the order of Peter the Great a chain of fortresses was built along the banks of the Ob and the Irtysh rivers to the foothills of Altai.

Groups of Russian peasants-traders were attracted to these regions by the new hunt-ing grounds and rich mounds in the foothills of Altai. Quite often gold wares were found during ancient graves diggings.

Among traders were those who knew how metal ores look like. It was they who had opened to Russia the treasury of Altai subsoil.

Sunset in Mountain Kolyvan.

Oxidized copper ores on the surface delight the eye by green malachite and blue spots of azurite.

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The highest peak of Kolyvan ridge — Moun-tain Sinykha is a reliable reference point for the first settlers.

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The first polymetallic deposits in Altai were identified by peasants-mineralogists due to the remains of ancient mining. The Russians called those ancient mining “Chud mines”, because all the Siberian antiques were connected by the folklore tradition with the legendary “Chud” people.

Ancient mines rose well above due to their peculiar relief and malachite green spots on the dumps.

As one of the first Demidov`s estate man-ager in Altai wrote: here, on “Chud mines” “the ore signs are flowers that feast your eyes”.

It is no wonder that in 1719 peasants-min-eralogists have founded several copper deposits in the mountains of Altai. In spring, 1720 in Moscow a test melting of the delivered patterns was made and cooper was produced.

The office of state did not hurry with the development of the new deposits outside the former Russian borders.

The valley of the Charysh River (Krasnoshchyokovsky District). “Chud mines” — a site of ancient copper ore mining which had pointed out the richness of the natural resources of Altay to the Russian earliest explor-ers were situated in these mountains.

Copper pot with handles in the shape of horses — the artwork of Altai teemers of VI-IV century BC.

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The big manufactor Akiniy Demidov – the founder of the mining industry in the Urals and Siberia understood that Altai – is a new mining district that will bring a great many interesting discoveries to persistent research-ers.

In January, 1726 Demidov brought samples of Altai copper ores to Catherine I and ob-tained a permit to open new deposits. As late as September, 1729 Kolyvano-Voskresensk copper-melting plant – a firstling of the Russian industry in Altai started its work. Barnaul copper-melting plant was the second Demidov`s factory.

In 1744 Elizabeth (Elizaveta Petrovna) the Empress of Russia satisfied a request of the miner for the highest patronage and Altai plants went in direct submission of the Impe-rial Cabinet.

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Bas-relief of A.N. Dem-idov — iron casting of the XIX century from the picturesque portrait of the 1740s.

Watchtower of the Koly-van fortress of the XVII century (reconstruction).

Mine hut among the stones.

Ore delivery to the Bar-naul plant.Drawing of the XIX century.

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As Elizabeth the Empress of Russia had ordered, a shrine (tomb) for the relics of Alex-ander Nevsky was made of the first “cabinet” Altai silver.

For half a century silver production has became a major industry in the region.

In the first half of XIX century Altai was the first in Russia in silver production, the second in copper and the third in gold pro-duction.

Silver shrine (tomb) for the relics of Alexander Nevsky, made of the first Altai silver from the Im-perial Cabinet. The State Hermitage.

In the old adit of Zmein-aya mountain.

The Siberian coin made of Kolyvan copper. Abbreviation “KC” on the obverse of the coin is the confirmation of a special high quality copper used in coin production. The composition of the metal for Siberian coinage was assigned by the personal decree of the Empress of Russia – Сatherine II on the 6th of December 1763: 99,18 % of copper, 0,81% of pure silver and 0,01 % of pure gold.

The Demidovsky square in Barnaul with a me-morial to 100 years of mining in Altai. Postcard of the beginning of the XX century.

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20

XVIII CENTUrY —ThE BEgINNINg OF STONECUTTINg ArT

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During ore prospecting in the Altai Moun-tains mineralogists inevitably found beautiful stones.

The idea of searching semi-precious stones was first formulated as a service errand for A.B. Beyer who had been sent to Altai by the Royal Decree of 1744.

Ural master stone-cutter Ivan Oparyshev took an active part in the search and exami-nation of Altai semi-precious stones, but he didn’t find gemstones, suitable for cutting among them.

Therefore the first stone mines of Kolyva-no-Voskresensk plants provided services for ore mining and smelting industry.

“Furnace” stone was mined there, pri-marily granite, suitable for smelting furnace laying, forge hearth laying and house footing building.

“Altai stone-cutters” by Anatoly Ganzhinsky.

Impressive landscapes of Mountain Kolyvan.

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Building stone was mined by metallurgi-cal department not only for manufacturing purposes.

From granite of Belovo deposit in the first half of the XIX century an obelisk in honor of the 100th anniversary of mining in Altai was erected in Barnaul on Demidovsky square.

While exploring new territories attention was paid to such types of stones which had not yet found a practical use.

The earliest evidence of the purposeful search of semi-precious stones in Altai was the report «the Search for Jaspers along the Charysh River» dated back to the year 1761.

The famous Altai jaspers from Revnev and Korgon deposits in the basin of the Charysh River.

The Charysh River. Kras-noshchyokovsky District of Altai Region.

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Samples of local orna-mental stones from the early collection of the Barnaul museum.

Title page of the book by G.M. Renovants «Miner-alogical, geographical and other news about the Altai Mountains, belonging to the Russian possessions», 1788.

In 1778 a teacher from the Mining school in St. Petersburg – a mineralogist Hans Michael Renovants was sent to Kolyvano-Voskresensk plants.

After the report of this inspection trip, he was sent to Altai again and was taken on the staff of the plants.

The Imperial Cabinet bought the richest collection of the samples «mineralogical collection of 2.300 hand specimen» from Renovants.

A former owner had to bring it to Barnaul and «keep it assiduously under his supervi-sion».

The moving of the famous capital mineral-ogist Hans Michael Renovants to Barnaul in 1778 with his richest «mineralogical collec-tion of 2.300 hand specimen» gave a new impetus to the study of ores and rocks.

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Mountain Razrabotnaya at the top of which since 1780-s rose quartz and collection beryls have been mined.

Unique vase of rose quarz with large inclusions of beryl. The State Hermitage.

In the enlightened age of Catherine II collecting of beautiful mineralogical samples became a popular pastime in the court sur-roundings of the Russian capital.

An interest to ornamental stone as to ma-terial for decorative and artistic design of the palaces under construction was growing.

In the middle of 1770s on the Peterhof Lap-idary Works a stone vase more that one meter high was made for the first time.

Shortly after (in 1782) such production was made in the Urals.

By the middle of 1780s objective prerequi-sites arose for the creation of the third center of stone-cutting art of Russia – in Altai.

There were no doubts that it was possible to find semi-precious raw materials here.

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An increased demand for the artworks made of stone arose in the capital of the Empire.

In May 1785 Catherine II issued a decree that sent P.A. Soymonov to Altai «for personal review» of Altai enterprises. Gavriil Simon-ovich Kachka – an experienced administrator, a former manager of Saint Petersburg Mint was appointed a new head of the plants.

A great connoisseur and a passionate stones collector – Soymonov brought to St. Petersburg a collection of the local samples.

Reporting on the trip, among other things a grandee presented to czarina Altai semi-precious stones and received her «oral»

Samples of Altai orna-mental stones.

A map of Loktevsky plant and mine that indicates ornamental stone depos-its. 1801.

consent to finance a new manufacture from the Imperial Cabinet.

At the beginning of 1786 the head of Koly-van plants organized exploration of ornamen-tal stone deposits on the vast territory. Later on in summer without waiting for a written decree he gave an order to construct a grind-ing mill at the Loktevsky silver-melting plant not far from the place where already know black porphyry deposits were situated. Soon, a master Peter Baklanov had arrived from the Peterhof Lapidary Works and started process-ing of Loktevsky porphyry. In the same 1786 the first artworks were sent to St. Petersburg.

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Starting with the processing of the black porphyry, craftsmen from Loktevsky District quickly mastered other kinds of semi-precious stones of Altai and Salair.

Preference was given to various porphyry and jasper from the Korgon River (the left tributary of the Charysh River) and breccias that were extracted near the Ridder mine.

Loktevsky artworks were small: vases were less than a meter high and except for them stone tabletops and small table decorations were made on the capital order.

In accordance with the aesthetics of the late XVIII century vases and bowls were put into simple, laconic form, which allowed man-ifesting the beauty of a stone, and emphasized the artistic merits incorporated into a product by nature itself.

Later with the change in the notions of beauty lavish bronze décor was added to many vases.

Porphyritic stones-boul-ders of the Korgon River.

Vase made of Korgon porphyry. The State Her-mitage.

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On March 12, 1800 the decree on the plant laying-off and the construction of the grinding factory there “as the nearest from quarry place” was issued by the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty.

Proximity to Korgon quarry predetermined transformation of Kolyvan metallurgical into Kolyvan stonecutting.

New factory building had been construct-ed by the autumn of 1801. In august 1802 all factory machines and mechanisms were put into action.

By January 1803 three pairs of vases of Korgon stone became the first artwork of the Kolyvan grinding factory: one pair of grey and violet porphyry, the other of violet por-phyry, the third of Kopeychataya (penny-like or orbicular) jasper. In 1821 one-storey stone building for the processing of bowls, vases and columns was built.

Unlike the other stone-cutting factories of that time for example the Peterhof and the Yekaterinburg, the Kolyvan factory was focused on the production of large artworks and soon there remained no match to it in the Russian Empire!

In the XIX century the Kolyvan grinding factory attained an international fame for Altai semi-precious stones and for the skills of Kolyvan stone-cutters.

"Tsarina of Vases" – the pride of the State Her-mitage collection. The weight of this artwork is 19 tonnes. The height of the vase with the ped-estal is 2,57 m, the large diameter is 5,04 m, the small one is 3,22 m. The largest vase in the world is made of Revnev jasper on the Kolyvan grinding factory. The image of the "Tsarina of Vases" is a part of heraldic symbol of Altai Region.

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ThE STOrE OF ThE STONE

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Winter landscape of Mountain Kolyvan.

In Charyshsky district the banks of the rivers are laid from ornamental stone. The Kumir River.

Altai is considered to be one of the main regions of concentration of the most valuable deposits of solid ornamental stones in Russia.

Authorities in precious and semi-precious stones highly appreciated Altai gems and ranked them together with the best semi-pre-cious stones of the world.

Stones of Altai are characterized by pleasant and soft colors, beautiful pattern, high density and toughness, ability to take polishing. The majority of deposits has large reserves and allows the selection of large monoliths.

Works on colored stones searching, started in Altai in the middle of the XVIII century, continued for the next two centuries.

Already at the end of the XVIII century there were approximately 330 deposits of jas-per, porphyry and marbles. In 1835 there were already 500 of them!

Due to the imperfection of cards the binding of significant part of the deposits was made to the nameless rivers, streams and hills, and later many of them have never been found.

Later, in the XIX-XX centuries were addi-tionally revealed more than 100 deposits of gemstones!

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The stone guardians of the treasures in the Altai Mountains. Amazingly shaped isolated hills of Mountain Kolyvan.

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Kolyvan grinding factory used mainly stones of Revnev, Korgon, Beloretsk, Goltsovo and Ridder deposits.

In the «list of colored stones and products used by lapidary factory of the years from1786 till 1833» 50 varieties of stone was enumer-ated.

The solids of many deposits have quite a complex composition and always caused con-troversy among researchers in the determina-tion of their names and the interpretation of their origination.

One and the same solid was called jasper, breccia, petrosilex or porphyry.

The name “jasper” and “porphyry” was of-ten given arbitrarily and later was not always rectified, confirmed and became “historical” names.

The origin of jaspers is as diverse as their colors. It can be explained by the different conditions under which they were formed.

Molten masses of different rocks outgushed to the earth surface 400 million years ago.

There appeared large granite massifs that hardened in the depths and lavas — porphy-ries that had poured out on the earth surface.

These eruptions were followed by the oth-ers, lavas different in composition appeared.

Thus, green porphyries were replaced by grey-violet quartz porphyries or fine-grained rocks.

Quartzitic type jaspers, siliceous shales, converted by pressure and high temperature of the depths are widely distributed in Altai.

Famous jaspers of Altai — Revnev and Goltsovo jaspers refer to compressed and contorted types of siliceous rocks.

The most renowned of all is Revnev stone not only for the grandness of its monoliths but also for high technical properties, beauty and pattern variety.

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Marmorate dendritic Petrosilex.

Picture jasper.

Sealing-wax jasper.

Korgon porphyry.

Kopeychataya (penny-like or orbicular) jasper.

Quartzite.

Siliceous rock.

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Revnev semi-precious stones deposit founded in 1789 by Kuzinskiy is situat-ed 12 km eastwards of Lazurka village, in Zmeinogorsky district of Altai Region at the eastern foot of Revnevaya mountain on the right bank of the river Bolshaya Lugovaya.

Pleasant soft greenish tone, patterns of quaint interweaving colored stripes, high density and toughness of the rock determined high artistic and decorative qualities of this ornamental stone. It is well to polish, giving a smooth surface.

Best advantages of Revnev jasper show itself in large artworks.

A large number of vases, bowls and other items from this jasper are reposited in the State Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and Mineralogical Museum of the Russian Acade-my of Sciences.

"Tsarina of Vases" — a huge elliptical Cup size 504 x 322 centimeter arouse overall ad-miration in the State Hermitage!

Sarcophagus for the Emperor Alexander II of Russia in The Peter and Paul Cathedral, 8 monolithic columns in the halls of the New Hermitage, 12 columns in the Andreevsky hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, pilasters in the iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral are made of Revnev jasper.

Works of art made of Revnev jasper attain international fame for this rock.

In the wild and picturesque Korgon valley among steep and rocky banks are deposited enormous amount of jaspers and porphyries, attracting by phenomenal variety of colors.

The most prominent jaspers of this region are — grey-violet, antique, red and Kopey-chataya (penny-like or orbicular) jaspers. In addition to them are red “kulichkovaya”, sealing-wax jasper, grey, black, white jaspers and ivory jasper with refined dendrites.

Stone of Revnev jasper.

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Up-stream the Charysh River in the upper reaches of its tributaries that are hard to reach, especially on the river Khair-Kumiru, are outcropped the same beautiful por-phyries, but of green and blue-green tones. Beautiful green porphyry and well known white jasper with white and black dendrites were first brought from here by Ivan Shangin. Monoliths of these jaspers and porphyries reach several meters in length.

The rocks are solid, have high hardness and abrasive or ribbed break, are slightly frac-tured and are well to polish.

Semi-precious stones of Korgon deposit were known by different names: jaspers, brec-cias, intrusive or effusive porphyries, tuffs, tufo and lava conglomerates.

In literature the main types of semi-pre-cious stones were named: “grey-violet jaspers”, “Korgon porphyries”, “dendrite jaspers”, “orbicular jaspers”, “kulichkovaya jasper” and “sealing-wax jaspers”.

These terms do not correlate with petro-logical names of rocks, but describing the deposits they have to be used in order to avoid possible misunderstandings.

Artworks of Korgon stones are reposited in the State Hermitage, the Russian Muse-um, Pavlovsk Palace and the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Most of them are centered in the State Her-mitage, where 24 vases, 8 lamps, 4 bowls and a great deal of other artworks, made in the period from 1794 till 1881 are reposited.

Microquartzites deposit was founded on the right bank of the river Bolchaya Belaya not far away from the former Beloretsk village (Zmeinogorsky district of Altai Region).

The volume of the reserves is 3 thousand cubic meters. Prime white, rose and yellow quartzites can be traced to the depth.

A rare guest of Korgon gorge is lucky enough to find marks on the burs of grey porphyry, that was drawn in the XIX century while extracting this noble stone.

White jasper with black dendrites.

Sealing-wax jasper.

Korgon porphyry.

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Bur of Belorechit on the bank of the Belaya River.

Ground smooth samples of Beloretsk quartzite display natural artis-tic abstractions to the viewer.

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The deposit is represented by lens-like solid, lain among Silurian siliceous shales which is called «the vein of the quarry» and is several meters deep.

The ornamental stone of this place was defined by researchers as «belorechit» (this name became consolidated in stone cutting market), quartz, agate, quartzite, micro-quartzite.

This rock of white, pink, yellow and vi-nous-red color is composed of quartz grains.

Iron oxide disseminations give to «belore-chit» reddish and pink colors.

According to its structure this rock belongs to microquartzites that have high density and toughness, are well to polish forming a mirror surface. Pink and white are the most beautiful and ornamental of them. Artworks of Beloretsk stone are reposited in the State Hermitage and in the museum of the Saint Petersburg State Mining Institute.

One more semi-precious stone deposit in Altai was founded at the end of the XVIII century on the right bank of the Bolshaya Goltsovka River near the present-day village Goltsovka of Zmeinogorsky district of Altai Region.

Jasperoid hornstones research verified their high technical and decorative qualities.

The deposit is made by greenish-grey hornstones (jasperoids) having here and there light grey color with greenish tints.

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Their structure is homogeneous, but some-times stripe or spotty sections are marked through greenish-gray material are shown grey, light grey to almost white, bluish-gray stripes, lenses, spots.

In addition there are layers of bluish-grey, grey, dark-grey and violet-gray hornstones.

In 1786 in the spurs of the Ulbinsk ridge another valuable ornamental stone deposit of highly decorative jasperoids was founded by a mining engineer Philip Ridder.

This is a dense siliceous rock of grey-green color with pinkish-grey and white irregu-lar-shaped inclusions of albite and quartz.

Ridder breccia is one of the beautiful rocks and its decorativeness is exclusive!

This breccia was used for the production of vases, floor lamps, table-tops and pedestals. Artworks made of breccia decorate the State Hermitage and other museums of the country.

Since the end of XVIII century the records are maintained and the state of things with semi-precious stones is controlled.

Inventory of the semi-precious stones sam-ples were made in three copies. The first was kept in the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty, the second — in the chancellory of the Koly-vano-Voskresensk mining district, the third — on the grinding factory.

Also three copies of the reference collec-tion («book of stone») was created, and in case a vase or a floor lamp was required for the decoration of the Palace, the project was made counting on the specific stone — a polished sample was offered at the disposal of an architect.

The last inventory of gems raw materials deposits dated from 1834. Since the mid-nine-teenth century, the range of the used stone expanded, new extractions were originated in the upper reaches of the Charysh River.

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By 1902-1904 years in the basins of the Katun and the Sema rivers were found depos-its of treelike serpentinites, quartzites and jaspers.

Systematic works on a semi-precious stones continued debenture trust “Russkiye Samotsvety” (Russian Semi-precious stones) that had founded Khair-Kumirskie white jasper deposits.

Construction of the underground in Mos-cow gave a new impetus to work on gem-stones. To designing engineers a condition was made that the underground must be faced with stones of the Soviet deposits ONLY.

Within the framework of this task in 1934-1935 the expedition of the Academy of Sciences which had discovered a great number of occurrences of marble, including Solonesh-enskoe and Pushtulimskoe groups worked in Altai Region.

Breccia.

Epidosite.

Siliceous volcanic tuff in the vicinity of Talovka village of Zmeinogorsky district.

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Pushtulim marble is unique and fine-grained. It is gentle-cream-, light green-, violet-, orange-, graycoloured. Especially beautiful is a white marble with red-green streaks. For its unusual combination of colours, Italians call this stone "fruits in ice cream".

In the second half of the 1930-s geological prospecting on the mountain Razrabotnaya was made for the purpose of identification of new pegmatitic mines with beryl and pink quartz. In the 1950-s exploration works of Beloretsk quartzites and marbles were made.

From the 1960-s gemstone mining was done by the Non-metallic party of the West Siberian Geological Survey. Since the 1970-s an expedition of geological association "Un-ionquartzgemstones" had worked.

Geological reconnaissance of Oroktoyskoe, Pushtulimskoe, Dukovskoe, Gromatushinskoe deposits of marble, Elandinskoe deposit of facing granites, Belovskoe deposit of gran-ites and Lugovskoe deposit of jaspers was made by the non-metallic prospecting party. New occurrences of marble, porphyries were revealed.

In the year 1990 the Non-metallic pros-pecting party made the report on gemstone occurrences as of January 1, 1990, and for the first time after the year 1834 the works of mining engineers of the end of the XVIII — the beginning of the XIX century were taken into account.

In 2004 the assessment of hornstones near the village Suetka and placers near Beloretsk deposits was made. New deposits of quartzites in the main bedding are revealed.

Pushtulim marble «fruits in the ice cream».

Oxide manganese dendrite from the river Kumir.

Sometimes the moun-tains of Altai present to the seekers absolutely fantastic images!

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Besides the described ornamental stones in Altai Region are known gemstones of other deposits with high decorative properties. Special attention deserve azurmalachites and flints of Stepnoe, Lazurnoe and a number of other deposits. Practically on all polymetallic ore occurrences it is possible to find encrus-tations or crusts of bright green or blue color — these are copper salts.

In most cases these rocks are loose, but among them there are siliceous — extraor-dinary beautiful samples with bright thin pattern and fancy design which are good for processing.

Jasper of Beryozovsky deposit is also very interesting. It is not so multicolored, but is interesting by noble gray-steel color, good blockiness and unique processing properties.

Azurmalachite in the solid.

Ground smooth Azurmal-achite sample.

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XIX CENTUrY —ThE CENTUrY OF ThE WOrld FAMEOF ThE AlTAI SEMI-PrECIOUS STONES

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In the XIX century Altai semi-precious stones and the art of Kolyvan stone-cutters received the world recognition. Their highly artistic works honorably represented Russia at the international exhibition forums of the second half of the XIX century.

In 1851 at the London Great Exhibition were shown two Kolyvan bowls — square with a pedestal of gray-violet porphyry and round of green-chatoyant jasper, and one vase from the same jasper.

For these three artworks the Kolyvan factory was awarded with the patent, medal of the 2nd degree and a book with the descrip-tion of the exhibition.

At the next Great Exhibition in 1862 the Kolyvan grinding factory presented a "chi-merical" bowl of gray-violet Korgon porphyry and received a bronze medal for excellent manufacture of bowls from a solid stone and the exhibition patent.

In 1867 at the Parisian Exhibition was exposed the vase of green-chatoyant jasper made by Kolyvan masters.

In 1873 at the Great Exhibition in Vienna the vase of gray-violet jasper with the pedes-tal of grayish-green porphyry was presented.

"The Kolyvan lake". Li-thography from the atlas of K. Ledebour " A journey through the mountains and foothills of Altai”, Berlin, 1820-30's.

Stand lamps and vases of Altai jasper in the picture gallery of the Winter Palace (The State Hermitage, St. Petersburg).

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In 1893 the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty participated in the exhibition arranged by the U.S. Government "in commemoration of the 400 anniversary of opening of the New World by Christopher Columbus". For these works of jasper and marble, presented at this exhibi-tion, the Kolyvan factory was awarded with a bronze medal and a diploma.

In 1880 the Kolyvan grinding factory participated in the All-Russian industrial and art Exhibition in Moscow devoted to the 25 anniversary of reign of Alexander II. For the exhibition three vases of blue Goltsovo jasper, two of them — in the form of cribs were made.

In 1882 at the next All-Russian industrial and art exhibition Kolyvan exposed a vase of green-chatoyant Revnev jasper on the marble pedestal, made in the Roman style. "For excellent art and workmanship" the factory is awarded with the 1st category diploma, that coincides with a gold medal. In 1895 the emperor Alexander III presented this vase decorated with bronze and inscriptions, to the city of Paris.

In 1896 in accordance with the highest behest of the Emperor the Kolyvan factory participated in the XVI All-Russian industrial and art exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod.

On the Exhibition the factory presented two crucifix of Beloretsky quartzite, two small vases of dark grey-violet jaspers with a pedes-tal, ashtray-shell of rose quartz with a snake of black fossil and a number of small products of different gemstones.

The collection of 36 small products from different rocks of a decorative stone was pre-sented. Among them were quartzes, jaspers, agates, porphyries, breccia, marbles and gran-ites — with two separate catalogs with the detailed description of the Altai ornamental stones deposits.

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Kolyvan grinding factory made products on the orders of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty.

Artworks of Altai gemstones were present-ed by the Russian monarchs as the highest gift to the high-ranking officials and the foreign states.

Kolyvan vase from the collection of the State Hermitage.

Bowl made of Korgon porphyry that had re-ceived the bronze medal at the World exhibition of 1862 in London.

The obverse and reverse of the London exhibition medal of 1862.

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1808 Square bowl of gray-violet Korgon porphyry, made according to the project of the year 1805, was finished in 1807. The bowl was sent by the Emperor Alexander I as a gift to Napoleon in honor of the conclusion of The Treaties of Tilsit (France).

1816 Oval bowl of green-chatoyant Revnev jasper on a pedestal of the same stone was presented by the Emperor Alexander I in Oxford (England) for the shown hospitality.

1826 Quadrangular bowl of bluish por-phyry, made in the year 1810, was sent as a gift by the Emperor Nicholas I to the Prince of Orange (Netherlands).

1826 Two Tabletops of grey-violet Korgon jasper for Duke of Devonshire (England).

1827 To congratulate the Emperor Nich-olas I on his enthronement Duke Wellington — the hero of The Battle of Waterloo came to Russia. For the done honor the Duke was thanked by a pair of floor lamps of Korgon porphyry. They are in the house museum of Wellington, in London (England).

1828 Bowl of Korgon porphyry was sent by the Emperor Nicholas I as a gift to the King William I of Württemberg (Germany).

1829 Vase of Beloretsky rose quartz on a pedestal of red Korgon porphyry was present-ed to the Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt in Berlin (Germany).

1834 Bathtub of Revnev jasper was presented to the successor to the Prussian throne. Now the bathtub is in Potsdam in the Roman bathing huts of the Sanssouci palace (Germany).

1834 Big bowl of Ridder jasper was sent to Vienna as a gift to the Austrian Empress from the Russian monarch (Austria).

1836 Quadrangular bowl of green-cha-toyant undulated jasper at the highest behest was sent to the Swedish king (Sweden).

1850 Round bowl of gray-violet jasper was presented to the Prussian king (Germany).

1853 Oval bowl of gray-violet jasper was sent as a gift to the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Germany).

1855 Bowl of grey-violet jasper was pre-sented to the Prince Karl of Prussia (Germa-ny).

1858 Two vases of gray-violet jasper were sent as a gift to senator of Hamburg Mr. Gode-frua, who had gratuitously given the steam-ship to the imperial family (Germany).

1859 Round bowl of Revnev jasper was sent to Paris to the painter Horace Vernet for the picture that he had presented to the monarch (France).

1859 Vase of green-chatoyant jasper was presented to the Grand Duke of Hes-se-Darmstadt (Germany).

1866 Bowl with handles of Korgon por-phyry was presented to the Prince of Wales (England).

1871 Vase of gray-violet jasper was sent to the Queen Olga of Württemberg (Germany).

1874 Vase of green-chatoyant Revnev jasper with pedestal of the same stone was presented to the Austrian Emperor (Austria).

1874 Vase of gray-violet Korgon porphy-ry with pedestal of greenish-gray pseudo-porphyritic granite was sent to the English Queen (England).

1880 Vase of Revnev jasper was presented to the Turkish sultan (Turkey).

1886 Vase of green-chatoyant jasper was sent to the Prince Furstenberg (Germany).

1892 Spherical vase of gray-violet porphy-ry was presented to General Bernhard Werder the German ambassador in Russia (Germany).

1895 Vase of green-chatoyant Revnev jas-per on pedestal of red marble was granted by Alexander III as a gift to Paris. In 1882 it had

The bowl of Revnev jas-per. The State Hermitage

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been exhibited at the All-Russian industrial and art exhibition in Moscow (France).

1903 Vase of red marble on pedestal of Revnev jasper was presented to New-York stock market pool (USA).

1908 Vase of green-chatoyant Revnev jasper on pedestal of Korgon gray-violet por-phyry was donated to the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).

1908 Vase of green-chatoyant jasper was sent to Sweden on wedding occasion of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and the Swed-ish Prince Wilhelm (Sweden).

The vase and pedestal of Goltsov Jasper. The State Hermitage.

Vase of Ridder jasper. The State Hermitage.

Jasper vase — the gift of the Emperor Alexander III to the city of Paris. Engraving of the XIX century.

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MOdErN ArTWOrKOF AlTAI MASTErS

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As well as in ancient times, the stone again starts playing an important role in decoration of the cities and holiday destinations in Altai.

Stone fountains with "floating" balls, the steles decorated with vases, decorative spheres on stair flights are perfectly set into a city landscape. In the places somehow connected with stone-cutting work of Altai, they are becoming both historical and art monuments.

Guests of special economic zone of tourist and recreational type “Sky blue Katun” are welcomed by the letters put from azurmala-chite, so similar to a geographical map of the blessed land — with blueness of the rivers, greenness of the woods, whiteness of snow and warm shades of the fields.

In the same place, on the bank of the mountain river Katun, on the way of the seekers of Belovodye and Shambhala took its place a monument to Nicholas Roerich by the work of the sculptor Vladimir Voychishin with postament from Pushtulim marble.

Artworks of the Altai stone-cutters also re-main as decorations of modern interiors. The special place is taken by the stone pictures accomplished in technique of the Florentine mosaic. Guests of the region can see them in

Miniature "Branch of lilac".

Monument to N.K. Roer-ich on the Bank of the Katun River in the Altai Mountains.

Decorative stone balls near the Drama theatre in Barnaul.

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Mosaic type-setting picture of ornamental stones “Siberian bear hunting”.

the foyer of the Regional Drama theater, the waiting room of the river station, St. Nicholas Cathedral in Barnaul, in a chapel on the route M52 (Chuya Highway or Chuysky Trakt).

The icons accomplished in this technique were presented to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the prime-minister Dmitry Medvedev and the famous small arms design-er Mikhail Kalashnikov.

Stone landscape pictures of Altai are also very popular. Shade variety of used stones perfectly show color richness of the nature of the region.

For centuries stone writing sets remained decoration of business offices, were indissol-ubly connected with literary work and served as a rich gift to honorable people.

A writing set from natural stone empha-sizes success of his owner, patriotism of the politician. The legend of a stone flower as of the top of the stone-cutting art arose for a good reason. Many masters dreamed to show that the stone is alive.

Today the Altai jewelers, knowing mod-ern techniques of stone processing, create masterpieces, worth a magic garden of the Hostess of a piedmont kingdom. Twigs of ce-dar, sea-buckthorn and lilac seem plucked just now. Take a closer look — a "happy" flower with five petals is certainly hiding in a lilac bunch …

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One can be captivated by the diversity of expressive means in stone miniatures, begin-ning with the selection of the material that is aimed to truly represent the texture of the image object, whether it is a maralskin or a knitted sweater of a cone getter to the combi-nation of various processing techniques.

In one miniature you will see both a sculp-ture, and the Florentine mosaic, and jeweler work on precious metals.

They say that in each adult lives a child. Very adult children — collectors play with very adult toys — amusing figurines became decoration of serious collections in Russia and abroad. And other adult children design and create these toys, and each of them is also a kind of collection of the Altai semi-precious stones, the variety of which enables to show everything that the artist had conceived.

In a completely different way sparkles the Altai stone in classical, traditional artworks, whether it is an Easter egg, a duck-shape ladle, chess pieces, or bowls and vases repro-ducing the well-known products of Kolyvan stone-cutters. Simplicity and form laconism make to concentrate attention on the stone pattern.

Different techniques, different styles, dif-ferent masters… For preservation and devel-opment of traditions, creative experience and for the solution of organizational problems "the union of handicraftsmen" was founded in Altai Region. One of the many tasks of the union is further studying of a subsoil of Altai Region…

It is hard to believe that this sea-buckthorn twig is made of stone.

Miniature "Fish".

Miniature "The dragonfly and the frog"

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Authors – V. Borodaev, S. Berger, A. Tselovalnikov.Under the general editorship of – M. Shchetinin.

Photo from The funds of the State Hermitage, The Kolyvan Museum of the history of the stonecutting art in Altai, Altai State Museum of Regional Study, Museum of Altai Archeology attached to the Altai State Technical University,

The Center for archive storage of Altai Region, The Museum of the Stone.Photographs: P.Boyarintsev, A. Kasprishin, A. Volobuev, S. Kuznetsova, N. Popova, S. Berger,

V. Borodaev, I. Haitman, M. Gelms, M. Zhukov, Condor, P. Golyakov, P. Filatov, V. Vdovin, A. Tselovalnikov.Used texts by: S. Berger, V. Borodaev, L. Ermakova, A. Kungurov, A. Lobanov, A. Shvetsov.

Design – A. Tselovalnikov.

By the order of the Administrative Board of Tourism, Recreationand Spa Complexes Development of Altai Region.