FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

A bow made entirely from ivory has long been considered an enigma as it has never been attributed to a country, let alone to a maker. Now Gennady Filimonov reveals its origins – made by one of the finest and most respected Russian artisans in history

The ivory bow commissioned from Osip Dudin by Catherine the Great still retains its original wooden case, decorated with the initials of its dedicatee, violinist Antonio Lolli

CLAUDE LEBET COLLECTION

L’Archet, the seminal two-volume work on bow makers by Bernard Millant and Jean-Francois Raffin, contains many examples of bows from down the ages. A most intriguing example, which appears on pages 186–7 of the first volume, is an ivory bow commissioned personally by the Russian empress Catherine the Great. Made entirely from mammoth tusk, the stick has a swan-bill head while the frog is made from a single piece of nacre (mother-of-pearl), decorated on each side with four small diamonds. The audience side features the inscription Catarina II Russiarum Imperatrix Fecit . et dedit A. Lolli. 1776 (‘Catherine II, Empress of Russia: made [for] and given [to] A. Lolli [in] 1776’). The bow has retained its original case, apparently crafted by the same maker as the bow.

The brief description by Bernard Gaudfroy in L’Archet treats the bow as a historical artefact from the collection of Claude Lebet, but includes no attempt at attribution. Nor has any other account of the bow in the past 200 years made any suggestion as to who might have made it. Until now, the first Russian bow maker whose name we know is Nikolai Kittel (1806–68), whose earliest examples date from the 1830s; to ascribe this artefact to a professional bow maker rather than an artisan would effectively rewrite the history of bow making in Russia by a full 60 years. However, the Lolli bow was indeed carved by a bow maker, who was also the leading ivory craftsman of his time: Osip Kristoforovich Dudin (c.1714 –85). A contemporary of Nicolas Pierre Tourte (1700–64), Dudin appears to have been the only craftsman engaged in such work in St Petersburg in the 1770s. The importance of Catherine the Great’s commission confirms Dudin’s standing as the most respected ivory carver and bow maker of his day in Russia.

Osip Dudin (left-handed) is believed to be depicted on the right of this 18th-century illustration

CARTOON COURTESY DUDIN FAMILY

The attribution of Baroque bows to specific makers has always been fraught with difficulty, since the bows are generally not branded. As in Germany of the early 19th century, the guilds forbade bow makers from branding their creations, and it appears that Russia was the same. In France, bow makers were even prevented from using metal until the abolition of the Parisian guild system in 1791, which allowed the Tourte family to create the ‘modern bow’. Furthermore, bow making in Russia lacked social status and the guilds refused to consider it a separate profession – which explains Osip Dudin’s dual status as a bow maker and ivory specialist.

The only contemporary record of this bow in Russia exists in the St Petersburg archives, in the form of an order from Dudin placed by Catherine II. Ironically, even though this has been a ‘celebrated’ bow since the 18th century, and Dudin’s fame and legacy as an ivory carver is worldrenowned, no one has ever connected the dots. Considered by his contemporaries as a remarkable Russian carver of bone and ivory, he appears to be Russia’s earliest recorded maker of violin bows. His frequent advertisements in the local newspaper Saint Petersburg Vedomosti show that as well as his usual offerings, he was supplying the city’s string players with bows: ‘Master craftsman Osip Dudin makes things carved from bone, mastodon ivory [and] walrus tusk, namely: chess, stamps, snuffboxes, handles for knives, boxes, trunks, cabinets from a variety of woods, canes, bows for violins and so on…’ (1764).

Advertisement for Dudin’s bows from the 11 June 1764 edition of the Saint Petersburg Vedomosti

From top Button and frog; head; and inscription on the ivory bow. Compare with those of Antonio Lolli’s own bow, shown on page 37

Very usefully, the Saint Petersburg Vedomosti’s edition of 30 April 1781 contains an account of Dudin’s life and career written by the man himself. It gives his age as 66 years, indicating that he was born either in 1715 or the second half of 1714. He was born in the village of Kuroostrov, in the region of Kholmogory in Russia’s far north, more than 600 miles north-east of St Petersburg; his ancestry in the region could be traced back to the 15th century. Although he was born into a peasant family, his father Pavel Dudin (a local priest) was the most educated man in the district, and owner of a very large library. He counted among his friends the great Russian writer, scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov (who befriended the family so he could gain access to the library). Osip, too, became an educated man and a lover of books. He married Daria Mikhailovna in 1737 aged 23.

Ivory carving (walrus and bone) from the northern region of Kholmogory has been the pride of Russian culture since the eighth century, but the art’s highest flowering began in the middle of the 18th. It was associated with the high demand for arts and crafts generated by the wealth of the ruling class, which meant that its best craftspeople were drawn to St Petersburg attracted by the prospect of commissions from rich patrons. Most of their work at the time came in the form of combs, caskets, workboxes and toilet boxes. Wealthier customers might also commission miniature cabinets and toilet tables. Understandably the most costly objects were furniture items with delicately carved veneers. The tsars were great patrons of this specifically Russian craft, and numerous smaller pieces are still to be found in Russian museums and Imperial residences.

Accordingly, around 1757 Dudin moved to St Petersburg, where his relatives had lived for around 40 years. An entry from 8 October 1757 in the journal of the Academy of Sciences chancellery states: ‘In the Kurostrovsky volost, peasant Osip Khristoforovich Dudin declared and offered to the office a carved bone, which he called mammoth, which weighs a little over twenty-three pounds, which he bought in Mezen in 1756 in the month of January…’ However, the main reason for his arrival in St Petersburg was not the sale of the bone but the placement of his son Peter in the gymnazia (high school) at the Academy. The boy was admitted in May 1758 ‘to learn mathematics, art and French’. The order for his admission was signed by his old friend Mikhail Lomonosov, who had facilitated both his acceptance of his son to the school, and the sale of the carved bone. Dudin was also recommended by another Kholmogory native, Fedot Ivanovich Shubin, widely regarded as the greatest sculptor of 18th-century Russia.

Order for Peter Dudin to enter the St Petersburg gymnazia on 27 May 1758. Mikhail Lomonosov’s name appears on the second line of the footer

On his arrival in the Russian capital, Osip Dudin was welcomed into the St Petersburg Guild for Applied and Decorative Arts. His refined and exquisitely carved portraits singled him out as the undisputed master of carved objects in the second half of the 18th century. According to author and expert Irina N. Ukhanova: ‘The Imperial archives indicate that Catherine II paid [Dudin] large sums for a variety of works carved from bone, many of which contained portraits. Payment for the works sometimes exceeded the amounts paid to the court jewellers, in particular the silversmith Deichmann [and] the goldsmith Pozier. Attention is drawn to the fact that Dudin was called a “free master” of the bone workshop, thereby emphasising his personal freedom and the independence of the artist.’

Dudin’s works delighted his contemporaries and demonstrate not only the skill of a carver who was fluent in the art of ‘through carving’, as the Kholmogory style is known, but also the beauty of ivory, then a valuable and fashionable ornamental material. Among Dudin’s most famous and popular works were his chess sets. Several of them were commissioned by Catherine II for the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (later Emperor Paul I). Each set was characterised by rich caskets of floral decor combined with inlaid patterns including both lavish plant motifs and lush curls. All these design elements were indicative of the Kholmogory Baroque and rococo styles, and were regular characteristics of Dudin’s work throughout his career.

Examples of Osip Dudin’s skill in ivory carving: (left–right) decorative tankard from the 1770s with profile medallions of Peter the Great and his successors; two decorative plates containing portraits of the Grand Duchess Maria Fiodorovna (later Catherine the Great)

MUG COURTESY HERMITAGE MUSEUM.

Bone and horn chess set by Osip Dudin 1760–70s

Dating from between 1760 and 1780, the chess set shown here demonstrates the meticulous attention to detail that Dudin brought to all his work. The board is made from wood and ivory, while the black and white pieces are both carved from ivory (the black pieces are distinguished by their inlaid decoration). Comparing the bow case with the inlaid patterns on the board, we can see the same plant motifs in both, while the dots used as accents on the chessboard (a style point indicative of the Kholmogory making style) can also be seen on the mother-of-pearl frog: the diamonds are used to give the same effect. They are also visible on the bow case around the ‘A.L.’ initials of Antonio Lolli. Finally, the button on the bow has an echo in the small caps and hats of the chess pieces.

The remaining archival records regarding Osip Dudin are found at the Solovetsky Monastery, on the island of Bolshoy Solovetsky in northern Russia. These show that Dudin lived in St Petersburg until end of 1781, but in 1782 moved north to the monastery, possibly a consequence of his wife’s death in 1778. He spent the rest of his life there until he died in 1785 aged 71. Today his descendants in Kholmogory, St Petersburg and Moscow number in the hundreds.

The fact of Catherine the Great being so impressed by Lolli that she would commission for him such a valuable and personal gift also gives an idea of Lolli’s celebrated status at court. In 1776 he was already approaching his 50th year, having been born in 1728 in the city of Bergamo, 28 miles north-east of Milan; this was 60 years before the birth of Paganini and nearly 30 years before Viotti. Already celebrated in Europe, Lolli was invited by Catherine to St Petersburg in 1773 to work as kapellmeister in the orchestra of the Imperial Court Theatre with a salary of 4000 rubles per year (an enormous sum for the time). He enjoyed a busy career while in the capital, and was even provided with two servants, Antonio Jabreau and Peter Schubert. Contemporary European talents such as Viotti, Pugnani and the young violinist– composer Ivan Khandoshkin were also giving concerts in St Petersburg in 1780–81.

CHESS SET COURTESY HERMITAGE MUSEUM DUDIN’S REFINED AND EXQUISITELY CARVED PORTRAITS SINGLED HIM OUT AS THE UNDISPUTED MASTER OF CARVED OBJECTS

Compare the decoration on the bow frog (four diamonds in a rectangle) with that of the dominoes on the border of the chessboard, and the floral motifs with the carving on the bow case

Lolli was reportedly an extraordinary performer, noted for playing difficult double-stops, octaves, 10ths, harmonics and double-stopped trills, anticipating the virtuosity of Paganini a few decades later. He was also noted for his eccentricity: an encyclopaedia published in 1810, eight years after his death, states: ‘Such was his caprice that he was seldom heard, and so eccentric were his style and composition that by many he was regarded as a madman. He was, however, during his lucid intervals, a very great and expressive performer in the serious style.’

Two pupils are credited to Lolli: Woldemar and Jarnowick (Giornovicchi) both of whom showed similar characteristics of extravagance and temperament. After leaving St Petersburg, Lolli spent a number of years touring much of Europe, including France, England, Germany, Poland and Scandinavia. In 1794 he was appointed as maestro di capella at the Royal Court of Naples. Lolli died in Palermo, Sicily, in 1802. His son, Filippo Lolli (b.1773 in Stuttgart) earned renown as a cellist.

Antonio Lolli’s 1740 Italian bow has a round stick without grooves and is 718mm long

COURTESY GENNADY FILIMONOV

It is almost certain that in fulfilling this commission, Dudin had access to Lolli’s own bow which he copied. Made in c.1740, Lolli’s bow is built on the Tartini model of around the same time. It is 718mm long, with a round stick made from strawberry wood. The frog is made of ivory and the button is of brass.

The ivory bow made occasional appearances in the historical record for the next two centuries. The first citation appears in the 1810 Dictionaire Historique des Musiciens where it states: ‘Antonio Lolli, famous violinist, was born in Bergamo in 1728. From 1762–73, he was the Capellmeister for the Duke of Wurttenberg. He then went to Russia, where he was so admired by Catherine II (the Great), that this Empress presented him with a bow, on which she had written: Bow made by the order of Catherine II for the incomparable Lolli. 1776.’ (This erroneous translation of the Latin inscription appears in several subsequent sources, including a 1901 edition of The Strad.)

In 1897 the bow was part of the collection of dealer George Hart, owner of the celebrated London firm Hart & Sons. In 1897 it was exhibited at the capital’s Grafton Galleries in an exhibition of musical and dramatic art, where it was singled out for particular mention by The Strad ’s editor Eugene Polonaski: ‘Mr. Hart is also showing Dantan’s famous bronze statuette of Paganini and the no less famous ivory bow presented to Antonio Lolli by the notorious Empress Catharine of Russia. If all the exhibits on view at the Grafton Gallery had been as interesting as those of Mr. Hart, the exhibition would have been one of even greater merit than it is; Mr. Hart’s beautiful things stand out very distinctly and are well worth a visit.’ For part of the 20th century, the bow was owned by the Swiss collector Willy E. Kern. After his death in 1993 it was bought by luthier and dealer Claude Lebet. Unfortunately the bow was stolen from him a few years ago, and its current whereabouts are unknown.

LOLLI WAS REPORTEDLY AN EXTRAORDINARY PERFORMER, ANTICIPATING THE VIRTUOSIT Y OF PAGANINI A FEW DECADES LATER

Osip Dudin’s genius is well preserved in his artworks on display at museums and private collections around the world, and now we can add this celebrated bow to his legacy, as a testament to his knowledge and understanding of the art of the bow. It also allows us to appreciate his artistic skills and his status as the foremost Russian bow maker of the 18th century.

Special thanks to the Dudin family, Claude Lebet and the Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg