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Karghin Fair will Show a Collection of Kerosene Lamps

The guests of “Karghin Fair on Pokrov Days”, which will take place on 9 October in Stanitsa Karghinskaya, will be shown an updated collection of kerosene lamps of Pyotr Soldatov, the well-known lover of the antique from Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya.

The lamps sized from 5- to 25-lines were mainly found in the Upper Don villages and stanitsas, and were typical for those places. Some of them required a serious and accurate restoration, the rest of them have preserved the appearance and functionality of the origin. The appearance of some lamps has original artistic design. For instance, there is a miniature kerosene lamp made in the form of a boat.

P.Soldatov says that the most difficulty in collecting lamps is restoration and selection of fragile glass bulbs which are different in size. Without the bulb called by folks “a glass bubble”, the lamp can’t give light in full. Each exhibit in his collection is set completely.

Unfortunately, as the collector goes, lamp producers did not mark the date of manufacture on their lamps. Nevertheless the oldest lamps can belong to the pre-revolutionary period.

The exhibition will show 70 lamps. All they, unusual or serial, from the beginning of the last century, faithfully served the Upper Don families giving light to those who after a day’s work got to reading, to knowledge and to learning new things.

Alexey Kochetov