The team of the Association of Private Museums of Russia traveled around the Tula Region and visited the Museum of Samovars and Bouillottes, where they got acquainted with the collection of businessman and philanthropist Mikhail Borshchev. At the moment, it is the largest private collection of samovars and bouillottes in our country, included in the Russian Book of Records. The collection presented in the museum contains about 600 items of decorative and applied art of the 18th – 21st centuries, made by both Russian and foreign masters.
The collection began to form over 15 years ago. At first, the exposition was located in Tula, in May 2018, when the construction of the museum building was completed on the territory of the Grumant Resort & SPA hotel, it acquired a new home. The collection includes the earliest samovars made in the Urals, and modern specimens created by skillful Tula craftsmen. This collection allows you to see the development of samovar production from the beginnings to the present.
“The samovar has always been associated with a peaceful, measured, stable life. It was loved and revered in every family. Some houses had a ceremonial samovar, in which water was boiled only on special occasions. The attitude towards this object was respectful. Nowadays, people who use samovars in everyday life claim that the samovar has a special magnetism, “keeps” people at the family table, making it possible to spend more time together. The fashion for bouillottes – vessels that allow maintaining the temperature of already boiled water – came to us from Europe. As a dishware, the boulotte served not only an everyday task, being a status item that emphasized the delicate taste of the owner, ”says the director of the museum Marina Volchkova, talking about the attributes of the tea table presented in the museum.
