Rostov Finift Enamel

Finift is painting in vitreous enamel on a copper plate, fired in stages so the colours fuse, and Rostov has done it since about 1760, when the bishop's workshops began producing small enamel icons for church use. The technique lets colours survive without fading, which is why eighteenth-century pieces still look as they did. Panels were set into book covers, mitres, panagias and iconostases, and after the church trade fell away in the nineteenth century the workshops turned to jewellery - brooches, pendants and boxes with flower painting in blue, white and gold, mounted in filigree silver. The museum in the Rostov kremlin holds the historical collection, several thousand pieces, and a factory in the town still makes it with painters working by hand under magnification; you can watch and buy. The pieces are small, and the interest is in how much detail goes onto a plate a few centimetres across.

What to look for

• The enamel technique - painting fired onto copper in stages so colours fuse.
• The church pieces - eighteenth-century icons and panels for mitres and book covers.
• The jewellery - flower painting in filigree silver from the nineteenth century onward.
• The working painters - hand painting under magnification at the town factory.

When to go

All year. One to two hours, combined with the Rostov kremlin. Factory tours need booking.

What to expect

Factory workshop tours are booked in advance and run in Russian. Much of what is sold in Rostov souvenir stalls is printed transfer, not hand-painted enamel, and the difference in price is large. The museum display is dense and Russian-labelled.

Nearby

The Rostov kremlin holds the museum; Lake Nero is behind it.