Large travel box with tableware, tea set, toiletries, writing paper and pens, a set for "backgammon" and a pair of candlesticks
Paris, France
1810s
Wood, brass, silver alloy, steel, porcelain, glass, bone, turtle, cardboard, paper, quill
30,0 х 47,5 х 28,0 cm
Receipt: from Central Repository of the State Museum Fund in 1927. Big necessaire (travel kit) was received by the Historical Museum in 1927 from The Central repository of the State Museum Fund, which occupied the building of the English club on Tverskaya Street and was a kind of collector, redistributing the values confiscated by the Revolution
Showcase 3
The eternal Russian theme of the Road, a long and exhausting journey through the Russian towns and villages, is impossible to imagine without Luggage. For the Russian "wandering and traveling" it was especially important to have a stock of necessary household items to comfortably stay at the station or in the Inn, so that at any moment of at hand were toiletries, tea and coffee crockery, inkpot and paper for writing.
Exactly such travel kit was owned by Gogol's character from the “Dead Souls” Chichikov "a small mahogany casket with custom made incrustations of Karelian birch", in which there was "in the middle the soap dish, behind the soap dish six or seven narrow partitions for razors; then square nooks and crannies for the sandbox and inkpot with a ladle for feathers, sealing wax and everything that is longer; then all sorts of partitions with lids and without lids for everything that is shorter (...). The whole upper box with all the partitions could be taken out, and under it would be a space filled with piles of papers of size of a sheet, followed by a small secret box for money, pulled out at the side of the box. (...) “You have a mighty good box, my father”, said Korobochka to Chichikov – “Might be you bought it in Moscow?” "In Moscow," replied Chichikov, continuing to write."
Indeed, all these things and many other could be placed in those chests or trunks, called in Russian “pohribtsi” or in the French manner – the necessaire.
Necessaires (from the French word necessaire, necessary) – in boxes, caskets and crates – were small specialized sets of the most necessary items of toiletries or crockery for eating on rout or a picnic; for sewing and needlework in the salon and at the event; for paper work outside home. By set of accessories were men's or women's travel kits composed for single traveler or couple (with a table set tete-a-tete); intended for an aristocrat or an officer or for a merchant. The main principle of their production assumed to fit a maximum number of objects into a minimal space.
Prestigious and expensive, travel kits (necessaries) were often ordered as a wedding or an official gift. Napoleon, for example, presented such set to the Russian Tsar Alexander I, and the French Minister Foucher - to his bride. It’s no wonder why the word "Souvenir" is engraved on the lid of travel box in the Historical Museum.
All these compact very specialized sets go back to medieval chatlen (sets of keys and tools, suspended on chains to the belt). Actually necessaries were known since the end of the XVII Century in Germany and England. However the largest and most versatile of them were made in France in the beginning of XIX Century, in the era of the first Napoleonic Empire. Silverware sets were made by silversmiths; porcelain was supplied by Parisian porcelain manufactories; steel items were made by suppliers from provincial France, London or Vienna. The Assembly and design of the sets was made in Paris, where were located such specialized workshops of "manufacturers of travel kits”. Among them could be mentioned Baden, the "knife-cutter and manufacturer of necessairs", who arranged his shop in the famous Parisian Palais Royal. The most famous was Pierre-Dominique Mayor, who’s workshop also was located in a prestigious area on the Saint-Honoré Street, and who most likely made the large traveling box that belongs to Historical Museum.
This is a compact mahogany chest with a tilting lid, brass corners and convenient folding handles on the sides for transportation.
Inside it is inserted a large box. The insert is covered with green Morocco leather with gilded embossing rimming the edge. The box has special, tight-fitting seats for larger items. Among them-two glass bottles, porcelain teapot, a cup without a handle and a saucer by the back wall; chocolate maker (black wooden handle is unscrewed and stored in a separate nest nearby); a large Sugar bin with remains of brown cane sugar; two jars with openwork lids (one preserved cotton wool); several cans inserted in one another on the principle of matryoshka; small porcelain cups, among which - a special cup for washing eyes after riding on a long and dusty road; two collapsible candlesticks, consisting of hollow tubes of candle holders and wide stands. Between them to save space, in smaller nests are: winding for thread, needle box, spatula, bristle brush (rather – shaving brush), two folding boot hooks.
In the center of the insert is a real "ply case" of oval trays of crimson Morocco leather with numerous nests for smaller items. These are a folding tool with a kopoushka (ear pick: a tiny spoon for cleaning ears) and two toothpicks – one sharp of steel and another, soft made of turtle shell; a scratcher also of turtle shell; a knife, a toothbrush, a measuring compass, a tweezer, a rectangular box with a dark men’s powder. Among the trays attached and a small oval shaving basin made of silver alloy, and its plug-in handle is stored in one of the trays.
Some of the items are missing, but the outlines of the nests clearly suggests that those were straight razors and sharpener for them, tray, scissors, hair comb, Arshin liner, pen cleaner and few knives.
At the side ends of a large box are hidden retractable drawers for money and papers. They contain three short writing quills, an inkpot and a sandpit with white sand (used instead of blotting paper) and clean paper sheets with English watermarks: "Watman" and "1809". Presumably this was the year of making of this travel kit.
The box itself spread on the table turns into a field for playing “Trick-Track”, a game similar to Backgammon. Large white and green checkers of chiseled ivory were stored in two layers beneath the green inlay box, and in its smaller nests you can find bone chips, which in a course of the game were pinned at the ends of a large box. Travelers were able to save an evening in the Inn or hotel playing the Game.
The set consists of 80 items and devices for their storage. Judging by the set picking and quality of things this travel kit was designed for a man who was neither too rich (metal objects are made not of silver but of alloys or tin) nor too poor. Perhaps, it could have been an officer or a mid ranking official or simply a landlord living a life full of frequent travelling.
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