In films about old times or ethnographic museums, you can still see quite voluminous boxes with a closing lid and a lock - chests. They are often mentioned in classical literature, when describing folk life or Russian landowners' estates. The chests were the storehouse of family wealth.
Types of chests
In the huts of Russian peasants, all the furniture was a table, benches along the walls, on which they sat during the day and slept at night. But the decoration of any hut, as well as a sign of family wealth and well-being, were chests. Depending on the size, they could have different functional purposes and look different, and be called differently, but their design features remained in common - a wooden box with a lockable lid.
In large chests - chests, which were placed in utility rooms and pantries, they stored products that could not be stored in basements due to dampness, for example, loose and herbal tea, as well as supplies of animal feed. Valuable property was kept in chests, which in the southern Russian regions were called hideouts. Smaller chests, hollowed out from a whole tree trunk, served to store especially valuable things and were called kublo. Small chests, which were covered with leather and bound with iron, were called shkatula; expensive glass dishes were packed in them. There were also head-chests with a slightly concave shape, in which money was transported, and on which one could sleep without fear that a nosy thief would quietly pull wealth from under the pillow.
Functional purpose of the chest
An ordinary chest served as a wardrobe and a bed; it could be placed in the hallway or in the upper room. They have been passed down from generation to generation. Festive clothes, thin shirts, tablecloths and linen were folded in them, especially beautiful scarves and gifts dear to the heart were kept. The chests were not opened often - on the days of national and church holidays, as well as on hot summer days - to sort and dry clothes, lay them with fragrant herbs and wormwood - from moths.
In the manor houses, where there were beds for the owners, the chests placed in the hallways or in the rooms of the courtyards were used as sleeping places, blankets were laid on them and decorated with multi-colored pillows. But many of the chests were decoration in and of themselves. Not only carpenters worked on their manufacture, but also blacksmiths, forging handles, hinges and locks that bound them with iron. The chests that were made in Nizhny Tagil were highly appreciated - local artists painted whole pictures on their lids and walls. Such a chest was placed in the red corner under the icons and only especially valuable family relics were kept in it. It was believed that on Shrovetide days, chests with family riches should not be opened, so that luck and prosperity from them would not evaporate. For the same reason, in order not to lose their happiness and wealth, the family chests were not given to anyone or transferred to anyone.
