The Yamburg (Stremlensky) pottery craft
No. 3 (42) (2026), Forum
No. 3 (42) (2026)

The Yamburg (Stremlensky) pottery craft

Forum
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46748/ARTEURAS.2026.03.009
Published 2026-09-30
Irina A. Kolobkova
State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

eLibrary ID chapki35@mail.ru

Abstract

The article presents the results of research devoted to the history of the traditional pottery craft that existed in the Stremlenskaya Volost of Yamburg Uyezd, Saint Petersburg Governorate (currently the Kingisepp District of the Leningrad Region) during the second half of the nineteenth century. The pottery tradition of this area belongs to the culture of the ancient Finno-Ugric Izhora people, who inhabited the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the Neva River, and the southern Ladoga region. Part of the article is devoted to the historiography of the issue. Once a major pottery centre of Yamburg (also referred to as the Stremlensky pottery centre), which supplied ceramic products to the western part of the governorate, the craft declined in the 1950s. Until recently, the Yamburg pottery centre remained little known among researchers and the wider public. In the 2010s, a process of its revival began, initiated by the small municipal Izhora Museum located on the Soikinsky Peninsula, the historical centre of the Izhora people’s territory. A new stage in the development of the craft is associated with the construction of the specialized “Centre of the Izhora Language and Crafts” at the Izhora Museum. The building was erected in 2019 with the support of the Nord Stream 2 company. Contemporary potters working at the Centre’s ceramic workshop have studied the rich artistic and craft traditions of local pottery production, excavated old kilns, and reconstructed the full range of authentic ceramic objects dating from the flourishing period of the craft in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Considerable attention is devoted to the traditional Izhora clay toy, distinguished by its vivid artistic originality in comparison with the well-known Russian centres of folk clay toy production, such as Dymkovo, Kargopol, and Filimonovo. The historical origins of the Yamburg clay toy are examined, while the revival of Yamburg clay sculpture is presented as a distinctive direction in the work of contemporary craftsmen.

https://doi.org/10.46748/ARTEURAS.2026.03.009

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