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Russian Collection
 The word “Russia” derives from “The Rus”, a people living in the Volga River area who first came to prominence around 830AD. They were ruled by khans, who encouraged them to be enterprising tradesmen and travellers.
There is some evidence that fine needlework was done in Russia in pagan times, but the oldest surviving Russian embroideries were made for the Russian Orthodox Church. These vestments showed much Byzantine influence, which raised the craft to an art form with the use of work in a silk flat stitch. By the eleventh century the Russian monasteries had their own schools of weaving and embroidery where Nuns worked on exquisite Byzantine silks as part of their general education in the convents, using a fine regular split stitch on backgrounds of couched gold thread and producing some of the most sumptuous and delicate embroidery ever made. By the seventeenth century, Islamic influence had replaced the Byzantine style, with the Turkish use of metallic thread on velvet grounds. The extensive use of pearl embroidery on costume gave a distinctive Russian flavour and it was often combined with jewels, coloured glass beads, gold studs, ‘shishadar’ or mirror-work, spangles couched gold and silver thread and coloured silks. Mythical beasts, ram’s horns, birds, the sun and the eight-pointed star were used as motifs. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was a predominance of repeat or medallion ornament, combined with winged beasts, lions or birds and all-over patterns or silver or gold tracery on a black or purple velvet ground. Around this time, raised work became popular and this was worked over shaped blocks of wood or padding. From 1682 professional workshops produced embroideries in the Western style where all major trends in European embroidery including Berlin Woolwork, were echoed. The individual workshops were very important in the production of Russian embroideries. The Staritzky Workshops, the Gudunov Workshops and the Stroganov Workshops all produced important pieces. During the 1790s embroidery on fine netting and muslin reached a higher skill level. In the nineteenth century new schools of art became prominent in the production of embroideries. Many of the costumes for the Ballets Russes, some of which were designed by Leon Bakst, were decorated with stitchery, as were the fashions and theatrical costumes designed by another Russian designer, Erté. With the advent of the Revolution in 1917 many of the great workshops ceased to exist.
 The coming of the machine age heralded a decline in commercial embroidery, but peasant embroidery continued to be skilfully executed and flourished, encouraged by the government. In the northern provinces linen was embroidered with cotton and linen threads, occasionally with silk and wool in red on a white ground.  What we know as ‘Blackwork’ is in effect ‘Red Work’ in Russia or it is sometimes reversed as white cross-stitch on a red cotton ground. Conventional motifs used were a stlylized Tree of Life, a horse and rider, a female figure with arms raised, fabulous beasts and birds and plant and geometric forms .During the late eighteenth century men began to wear heavily embroidered waistcoats and coats, the embroideries being embellished with glass beads and birds’ feathers. Satin and velvet caps were embroidered with gold and silver threads. At this time embroidered pictures also became popular, especially landscapes in the Chinese style and cross stitch and satin stitch were used with couched gold thread .Embroideries from the southern provinces such as Tambov, Voronezh, Kaluga and Tula were geometric in style. The stylization of floral motifs was so extreme that they can now not be recognised as floral. The colour schemes were very rich, often worked in wools of strong colours. In the Tambov and Voronezh regions the designs were outlined with black cotton thread. Men’s and women’s festive shirts from Voronezh were embellished with gold lace and calico insertions. The hems of ‘poniova’ petticoats were decorated with coloured wool embroidery or sometimes they were covered with colourful all-over designs.
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