/ What is a samovar page 12

The device of the samovar

Until the middle of the XIX century, the main "individual" consumer of products of samovar production was the nobility. Samovar was not only the embodiment of Russian hospitality and family comfort, but also a kind of expression of material prosperity. Relatively expensive products of metal-making plants and workshops, including samovar, were available only to the well-off strata of the population, because The cost of the samovar was great.

Townspeople used "public" samovars. A citizen could drink tea from a samovar, having come to a tavern, to a fair or a city square. In taverns and in inns in samovars, not only tea was prepared, but also soup, porridge, eggs. The samovar allowed to keep food in a hot state. Samovars were a necessary attribute of all folk festivals. Approximately from the middle of the XIX century, the level of samovar production increased, improvements and standardization lead to a reduction in the cost of samovars, and tea drinking is part of the everyday life of the general population. The samovar becomes an indispensable part of the merchant class, raznochintsy, philistines, it is customary to take the samovar on the road.

However, in the village, even in the seventies of the XIX century, samovars were found only in strong well-off families.

Types of samovars in terms of scope and volume:

  • Everyday (from the people's rooms).
  • Ceremonial.
  • Road.
  • Soldiers (with a strap for carrying over the shoulder).
  • For solitary (tapeworm); For two (tete-a-tete).
  • Children.
  • Family.
  • Shop.
  • Tavern.
  • Monastic (up to 10 buckets).

However, simultaneously with the samovar, there were heating vessels in which it was possible to cook food or sbiten, boil coffee, warm or, on the contrary, cool the wine. They were similar in many respects to the design of the samovar, but, since they differed from it in design, in the details of the design they had their own.

The line between such instruments and "classical" samovars is rather blurred - for example, there were samovars that could be used for tea making and coffee making, sbitenniki or kettles might or might not have a pipe-brazier, etc. Without going into the art critics' controversy about what is and what is not a necessary sign of a "real" samovar, let's look at the areas of application and purpose of "samovar vessels" of the XVIII-XIX centuries.

Types of samovars for the purpose:

  • "Classic" samovars (for making tea).
  • Samovars-kitchens (for soup, porridge).
  • Samovar-sbitenniki (a vessel with a special handle to wear hot sbiten - a drink made of honey, sage, hops, mint and other herbs).
  • Samovars-kettles (for cooking boiling water).
  • Samovar-coffee pots (for making coffee).
  • Blocks (for heating water and keeping it hot).
  • "Fountains" (original refrigerators in which it was possible to serve cold drinks poured in the kitchen).

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