The Ornamented Tile-Stove From the V. Kochubei’s House in Baturyn

Abstract

In 2015 during the archaeological excavations on the territory of “Kochubei” park in Baturyn a blockage of tiles was discovered in cultural layer. The blockage, besides tiles, contained broken bricks, yellow clay, and little fractures of lime. Discovered materials were remains from the tile-stove, located in the smallest room of the General Judge V. Kochubei’s house, which probably was a girls’ room. Found tiles fragments belonged to at least of 38 specimens. The tiles collection is represented by two varieties of panel and cornice tiles. All products are unglazed, have a relief floral motif and the traces of shoot inside. The surfaces of some items were covered by a layer of chalk. Based on constructional (a type of rim figuration) and decorative features there was noticed similarities between pairs panel—cornice tiles. Petrographic and elemental analyses have showed that all tiles were made of clay from one deposit and burnt at the same temperature within two similar or one cycle. Written sources about the organization of workshop craft, analysis, design, and decorative features of the products allowed assuming that two masters of the same craft association worked on the stove construction and the production of tiles for it. The tiles set attest to the two-tiers stove. The well-known Baturyn, Ukrainian and foreign analogies let us graphically recreate the appearance of the tile stove and its estimated size. The tile-stove was built between 1700 and 1708 when the house belonged to V. Kochubei, and later it was destroyed in the second half of the XVIII c., not earlier than in 1778. Accordingly, the tile stove from the girl’s room had existed in the house for 70—78 years, during which it had been whitewashed, possibly repeatedly, to hide traces of soot and dust on the surface.