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Russian Furniture Styles - Steel Furniture From Tula

Work in steel, mainly from the town of Tula, was a craft particular to the Russian market in the eighteenth century, and an area in which Russian master craftsmen excelled.The armourers at Tula began to make useful everyday objects, other than military and hunting weapons, which then led to elaborate wrought ironwork. Garlands, bows, rosettes and tracery was chiseled into the iron. The blacksmiths developed a technique which was unituqe to the factoyr: the cutting of metal in facets. 

Above: A Russian chair and footstool from Tula in polished and faceted steel and chased and gilt bronze, part of a set bought by Catherine the Great in 1789. (Pavlosvsk Palace Museum) 

Source: Russian Furniture The Golden Age 1780-1840, Antoine Chenevière

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