Name/Title
Khokhloma lidded bowl (sugar bowl), Soviet export wareEntry/Object ID
2025.25.2Description
Turned-wood lidded bowl in the Khokhloma idiom. A hemispherical body sits on a red turned foot-ring; the domed lid carries a small turned black knop. Decoration is the classic Khokhloma scheme — gold leaves and grasses with clustered red/orange berries (rowan and stylized strawberries) and green tendrils scrolling over a black ground, a gilt band below the rim, and red banding at the foot. The lid repeats the berry-and-leaf motif.Collection
María Teresa Cornide Hernández collectionMade/Created
Place
Region
Gorky, Eastern EuropeCountry
U.S.S.R.Continent
EuropeNotes
Maker: Not named on the label (the Soviet export sticker carries no workshop attribution). Khokhloma craft of the Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) region — most plausibly one of the two principal Soviet producers, the Khokhloma Painting association at Semyonov or the Khokhloma Painter factory near the village of Khokhloma (Koverninsky district). (Tentative; workshop not specified.)
Date: Soviet manufacture, USSR, per the "MADE IN USSR" export label (hence pre-December 1991). No year present; the label type and ware are consistent with circa 1960s–1980s production. The exact year cannot be confirmed within 1959–1990 and may fall just outside it, though the Soviet/pre-1991 attribution is secure.
Place of Origin: USSR — Khokhloma craft, Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) region, RSFSR.Inscription/Signature/Marks
Notes
Paper export label on the underside: an ornate gilt filigree frame on black enclosing a red disc lettered MADE IN USSR; beneath it a printed АРТ. (Артикул / article) line completed with an inked, partly illegible number (approx. "1292"?). No painted artist's signature visible.Materials
Material
WoodMaterial Notes
Materials: Turned wood (likely linden or birch); aluminum-powder ground, heat-resistant oil paints, oil/linseed varnish cured to the characteristic gold tone; paper label.
Technique: Traditional Khokhloma lacquer painting — metallic (aluminum) ground, freehand oil painting in red/black/green, varnished and kiln-hardened so the varnish turns gold; "over-painting" (верховое письмо) with gold leaf-forms reserved against a painted black field. Lathe-turned body, lid, and finial.Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Maria T. Cornide HernándezNotes
ownerRelated Places
Place
City
HavanaCountry
CubaRegion
Caribbean, Central AmericaNotes
usePlace
Region
Gorky, Eastern EuropeCountry
U.S.S.R.Continent
EuropeNotes
productionResearch Notes
Notes
Khokhloma originated in the 17th c. in the village of Khokhloma, Koverninsky district, Nizhny Novgorod (Soviet Gorky) Oblast. The "gold" is aluminum powder under heat-cured varnish, not gilding. The Soviet revival from the 1960s was concentrated in two enterprises — Khokhloma Painter near the village and the Khokhloma Painting association in Semyonov.
Soviet Khokhloma was a flagship export line, shipped abroad with "MADE IN USSR" stickers of exactly this red-disc / gilt-filigree type.
The footed lidded form corresponds to a sugar bowl / general lidded bowl, a standard production item.Created By
María A. Cabrera ArúsCreate Date
October 20, 2025Updated By
María A. Cabrera ArúsUpdate Date
June 14, 2026
