The home-museum of the manufacturer Dumnov S. I.

The museum, dedicated to the history of hand-made silk weaving, was created by Galina Maslennikova in the house of her ancestors, who were manufacturers of silk. It is located in the Village of Zarechye, Kirzhachsky district, Vladimir region (formerly Pokrovsky district). The house was built by Galina’s great great-grandfather Dumnov I. F. in the middle of the 19th century, when in the village of Zarechye, silk weaving had arrived from the neighboring Moscow Bogorodsky district of Moscow province to replace home paper weaving.

This is a two-story house with a powerful brick first floor. The second floor is made from logs. richly decorated with Argun architraves, with a unique architecture that is typical only for this region (according to Moscow experts).

The house itself and its architecture are of considerable artistic and historical value. It is a part of a complex of houses that is preserved in the village of Zarechye and directly related to the silk production in this region.

For four generations, Dumnov manufacturers were engaged in the production of silk velvet. Galina Maslennikova’s mother was born in this house and lived in it for 19 years. She told a lot about the history of the house and the velvet production.

In 2000, Galina Maslennikova, a well-known Moscow doll artist, purchased this house from the state and restored its interiors and estate with historical accuracy. She also restored the old Svetelka factory on the premises with hand-made silk-weaving equipment and mills of the 19th century, used for the production of silk-velvet fabrics. The old equipment has now been put to use again. Thus, an entire museum complex dedicated to the history of the silk and velvet industry is being created; it is the only one in Russia.Galina Maslennikova has developed and successfully implemented two unique projects for the preservation of Russian cultural heritage over 30 years of being active in the field of folk crafts:

1) in the early 90`s she revived and then developed the Moscow doll industry – the production of artel dolls,

2) she revived the hand-made silk velvet weaving, a unique trade, that existed in Russia since the sixteenth century.

The collection contains:

– samples of old silk fabrics, silk handkerchief;

– costumes of the 19th-early 20th century, made of natural silk;

– tools and devices used by weavers for silk weaving during the 19th century;

– dolls from Galina’s workshop, dressed in Russian national costumesStatistics.