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Features of gold handicraft of the Left-bench of Cherkassy region
The material from the 2nd research and practice ethnographic conference (July, 2010).
 The features of gold handicraft are mane on the basis of gold dukach collection. Dukach – is a decoration made of large coin. It looks like a medal. The unique phenomenon of folk jewellery art on the left bench of the Dnieper remains a woman decorations. Dukach was the main element. It made a unique type of all dress. The examples of local craftsmen are explored not well enough. Their works decorate museums and private collections and waiting for the scientists attention. For thousands of years the decorations play role of original sign systems for certain historical periods. It also showed a certain social statuses of their owners and was like amulets. People believed that these decorations have unique abilities to heal people, to protect from evil witchcraft, to give power and health. The gold craft is a wonderful complex of woman decorations: ear-rings, coral necklace with silver reefs, dukach, chains and crosses. Together with traditional folk clothing, ribbons, and chaplets they created the organically completed folk closing of this region. The dukach was the main element of woman decorations. People wore it on the chest under the neck together with ear-rings, necklace and chains. The chaplets were mostly coral and had few lines, sometimes up to 12. The coral chaplets were used mostly with silver chaplets. A chain was complicated. Sometimes it was 1,7 meter long. People used to put it together and used special locks to keep the chain together. Each lock had 2 pendants that had a form of small bell. The edges of the bells were decorated with a piece of silver chains. You could change the form and length of the chain. This chain usually had a silver cross. The dukach complemented the decoration esthetically and decoratively and at the same time it was a specific feature of the region. Dukaches of Ukraine is a unique branch of the world medal art working. According to the historical documents in the ХVІІ-ХVІІІ century dukaches were wide spread among the rich woman such as Cossack families. The unique decoration of the first half of ХVІІ of century you may see in the fond of the State historical museum in Kamyanezk. The basis of it makes the silver chain 1322 millimeters long. The chain has 722 rings, 12 millimeters in diameter each. The rings are connected with the chain mail method. The rings hold a coin inside. The coins were made in Poland in 1539, 1619, 1623. These are the oldest decorations with coins found in this area. This type of decorations was popular in the ХVІІІ century. О.І.Shafonskiy depicted dukach as a main decoration of rich woman, woman out of Cossack families and some villagers in his illustrations. Dukach as a decoration could appear only on this territory. In the ХVІІ century cossacs started to receive decorations as a reward. They wore their decorations on the neck on the ribbon. And also there were the Russian high state rewards in the beginning of the ХVІІІ century. The village gold craftsman, under the impression of Cossack decorations, created a unique decoration that later became a part of woman dressing. This decoration was popular for a long time. People treated jewelers very nicely. A poet of the ХVІІ century Klymentiy Zynovyiv described a golden dukach as a heavenly beautiful. In Cherkassy region, as well as in the other regions of Ukraine, in the ХІХ-ХХ century dukach was the main element of woman closing. On the right bench of Dnieper it was gold or silver coins. Also a dukach was a part of a chain, sometimes used with silver cross. There could be 2-3 dukaches. Dukach is a unique decoration of every cossack family and wonderful creation of masters-jewellers. That testifies the high level of local masters-jewellers. Their works you may find in Cherkassy Regional Ethnography Museum and in local private collections. Dukach has few aspects of research: the most interesting is the quality of the works; the artistic level of work and their value. This part of the jewelry of that period is hardly examined. Dukach first appeared on the left bench of the Dnieper river. A famous regional ethnographer of Cherkassy region O. Samkov has a large collection of Dukaches. He collected not only Dukaches for decades but also the racords of stories about the jewelers. In 1988-1989 few interesting stories were written by the workers of the Cherkassy regional Ethnographic Museum according to the words of the habitants of Zolotonosha and Chornobay region. In 1992 there was an exhibition "Traditional closing of Cherkassy region in ХІХ –ХХ century” in Cherkassy. The exhibition was held by the workers of ethnography department Galyna and Mykola Korniyenko. Cherkassy regional Ethnography Museum has all the kinds of Dukach: a wicker form, horned and so called "veremiyivskuy”. All these decorations are local production and were given to museums in 1970-1980.  The left bench of the Dnieper has 3 regions Zolotonosha, Chornobay and Drabyv in Cherkassy area. At the beginning of the XX century it made a 4/5 part of Zolotonosha region of Poltava province. In this territory the quality and unique works of willage jewellers were revealed. We have to mention that there was a certain difference in wearing dukach. In the modern Drabyv region woman used to wear dukach with topknot as well as in Chornobay or Zolotonosha region. A part wore dukach without topknot as it used to be in Poltava region. Everyone could buy dukach in Chornobay, Zolotonosha and Pereyaslav. People used to wear dukach with topknot only on the left bench of Dnieper and mostly it were the representatives of Cossack families. For example the village Veremyivka in 1903 had 12000 people and most of them were cossacs. It was the center of dukach production. The dukaches of the ХVІІІ century are very rare. The dukach topknots were produced with punching method but you can hardly find 2 similar topknots. It took great patience and work. Each topknot has its own unique form, color and different precious stones. The chains that hold dukach were also of different kind. In the village Klischenzy and Matvyivzy the chains were decorated with small lines – this type was called a "chain with earrings”. There were 3 main types of topknots: a wicker form, horned and so called "veremiyivskuy”. We should mention that there were also small dukaches for children. Wicker form is the oldes type of dukach topknots. It disappeared at the beginning of the XX century. It was "old school”. But people used to wear this type of dukach in few villages (Somovysa, Demky) to the 30’s of the XX century.  Basis of the topknot composition was made by the contours of two case bound hearts. A horned type dukach was popular in many plases on the Left bench of the Dnieper. This kind of dukach looks like a fantastic flower with 3 pares of stretched horizontal leaves. The top pair of leaves bends upwards, embracing a cross. The ends of the leaves going up forming protrusion that remind horns. There are different types of precious stones between the leaves. In Cherkassy museum you may find 4 horned dukaches. 2 of them are silver the other 2 are covered with gold. The "veremiyivskuy”type was produced mostly in the village Veremiyivka. With its rich decoration "veremiyivskuy” dukach was like a flower. This type was very rich, had many stones and chain "with earrings”. In the beginning of the XX century a new form of dukach appeared in Cherkassy region. It had a changed form of the leaf bund together with a blue stone in the center. This topknot is smaller; it has 3 round decorated leaves with blue stones. A lower leaf hides an attachment of 3 chains that hold a medallion (Russian silver coin made in 1878). Leaves on top are connected with a cross that has a round blue stone in the middle. Almost in every village there was a jeweler. The main centers were in the villages Melnyky, Irklyiv, Kropyvna, Veremyivka, Vasutenzy, Gelmyaziv, Zolotonosha. In the willage Gorodysche there were few jeweler families. Each family had its own secrets of dukach production. "Veremiyivskuy” dukaches were the most valuable of all because they were made of gold and silver. The Irklyiv jewelers used a composition-metals, copper and tin, even used low quality silver from Poland. All jewelers loved their work.  Accoreding to the local stories and legends local jewelers never used foreign names and technical terms. There is a local Vocabulary of technical terms made with the help of the last "old school” jeweler of this region – Oleksandra Oleksyivna Bash. She lives in the village Zagorodysche (now it’s a part of Irklyiv village). There are some memories of the jeweler‘s relatives, such as a doughter of Fedot - a jeweler from Veremyivka – Nina Fedotovna Petrovska. A villager who wanted to make a dukach had to bring 2 silver coins. 1 coin was used as a medallion; the other was used to make a topknot. A jeweler used his own metal to make a chain, spring and the stones (sometimes made of glass). To make a topknot a coin was flattened with a hammer. To avoid cracks a coin was in fire. Before going under the pressing a coin was covered with a lead plate. Some jewelers had pressing machines. Pressing machines were made of high quality steel and were very expensive. Some jewelers called the pressing machine -Spodok. It had a size of three dukaches of different type and size. On the narrow side of the press there were grooves for making rings. A caulking was the final proses that included: making holes for the stones, setting of stones, making and polishing of the edges. The junction was important part and each jeweler had his own secret. Mostly people used equal parts of silver, copper and zink. Sometimes people used brass instead of copper. Almost all topknots were decorated with small lines. If a dukach was made for a rich person usually it was covered with gold. Jewelers had to buy a glass for stones. A red glass was the most popular. Sometimes the glass had few color layers. In most of cases the jewelers were also grain producers that had farms. Jewelry production brought additional money. Naturally they showed the taste of the villager that has its own character. Jewelers in town borrowed the ideas in the village. The village jewelers enriched the art of jeweler production. Village jewelers were very famous people. A part of village jewelers got education in towns the others were self-taught. It was a great cultural loss for nation when the "old school” jewelers disappeared. The tradition to wear dukach disappeared not because it was not popular but because the mode of life was totally changed starting from 1917. Dukach was lost because it had a symbolic of emperor coat of arms, the crown, and people crowned. All this symbolic was totally destroyed by the new regime. Being afraid of pursuits, woman used to hide dukaches and stopped to wear it. In 1920-1930 the village jewelers disappeared completely. And now we have only the results of their work – a fine example of folk art. On the fotos you see the dukaches of the left bench of Cherkassy region jewelers that belong to the Cherkassy museum collection. Special thanks to Nesterenko Valentina Ivanovna – a director assistant of the advanced study in Cherkassy Regional Ethnographyc Museum. | |
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