On the pages of the novel “Eugene Onegin,” Alexander Pushkin mentioned “brands” that were popular in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. We remember the companies whose products and services were used by Russian aristocrats.
Bolivar hat
John James Chalon. Fashion store in Paris. 1822
Putting on a wide bolivar,
Onegin goes to the boulevard.
Black cylinder with wide brim- this is what the most fashionable looked like headdress that time. In illustrations for the novel, characters are usually depicted wearing bolivars.
In the 19th century, hats were often named after public figures, and some people even expressed their Political Views. In 1821–1823, when the poet began work on the novel, cylinders named after General Simon Bolivar gained popularity. He was a national hero South America, leader of the struggle for the independence of the American colonies from Spain. At that time, the general was just liberating Peru, and in 1825 he became the head of the Republic of Bolivia, named in his honor.
Bolivar's supporters wore wide-brimmed hats, which made their way into European fashion in the 1810s. Their fields, as the everyday life writer Mikhail Pylyaev mentioned, often turned out to be so wide that it was impossible to pass through the narrow door. However, already in 1825, the fashionable Moscow magazine “Moscow Telegraph” wrote that bolivars were losing popularity. So the author dressed Onegin exactly according to the fashion of the early 1820s. And besides, he hinted at his political sympathies.
Breguet watch
Elena Samokish-Sudkovskaya. Illustration for the novel “Eugene Onegin” by Alexander Pushkin. Published by R. Golike and A. Vilborg, 1908
And there he walks in the open space,
While the watchful Breget
Dinner won't ring his bell.
To the dandy Onegin there was no need to take the watch out of your pocket to look at the dial - you just had to put your hand inside, press the spring, and the watch would ring the time. This feature of repeater watches (as they said then, “with rehearsal”), in particular those produced by Breguet, made them practically synonymous with alarm clocks. Pushkin mentioned them in the text several times: before dinner, “the stomach is our faithful breget” hinted to the heroes about the time of the meal; before the performance, “the ringing of the Breguet informs them that a new ballet has begun.”
The founder of the Breguet company was watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet. Swiss by birth, he opened his first store in 1775 in Paris. Bregets were famous not only for their accuracy, but also for the fact that no two models were the same. The buyer could be sure that no one else had the exact same watch as his. Now the Breguet brand is one of the oldest surviving brands.
Breguet began to explore the Russian market in 1801, and already in 1808 a representative office of the fashion company opened in St. Petersburg. Among the fans of the brand were princes Golitsyn, Gagarin, Yusupov and even the emperor Alexander I. Breguet also “gave” his character Alexander Pushkin.
It is curious that the buyers of Breguet products - educated aristocrats - of course knew the correct pronunciation French surname. However, the name of the company entered the Russian language in a literal reading - with the letter “t” at the end. Besides, it was more convenient to rhyme this way.
Restaurant Talona
Dmitry Belyukin. Illustration for the novel “Eugene Onegin” by Alexander Pushkin. Publishing house "St. Andrew's Flag", 2002
He rushed to Talon: he is sure
What is Kaverin waiting for him there?
Pushkin doesn’t just send his hero to dine at Talon’s - he also puts a special footnote to his surname with the text “famous restaurateur” so that the reader will definitely pay attention to this surname. Perhaps Talon gave the poet a discount for this?
After all, Pushkin could have sent Onegin, for example, to Mr. Andrieu’s establishment at 15 Malaya Morskaya, where, according to Thaddeus Bulgarin, officials and ministers “had lunch.” Pushkin himself visited this restaurant several times, and it was there that he met Georges Dantes.
However, the poet chose Pierre Talon's fashionable restaurant on Nevsky Prospekt for Onegin. The restaurant occupied Kosikowski's house near the Police Bridge. Here, according to the same Bulgarin, it was possible to “fully satisfy your gastronomic needs.” And indeed, Pushkin gives a whole list of popular dishes of this restaurant - roast-beef, truffles, Strasbourg pate pie.
At the beginning of 1825, Talon advertised in newspapers that he was returning to France. True, immediately after his departure, another French restaurant opened in the premises - Feuillet. Pushkin visited there too.
Pistol "Lepage"
Ilya Repin. Duel of Onegin and Lensky. Illustration for the novel “Eugene Onegin” by Alexander Pushkin. 1899. All-Russian Museum A.S. Pushkin
We rushed over. He tells the servant
Lepage fatal trunks
Carry him...
And here again Pushkin puts a separate note on the Lepage brand, which reads: “Glorious gunsmith.” Master Lepage was truly “glorious.” The Le Page rifle company (later Fauré Le Page) was founded in Paris back in 1717 and remained in the hands of the same family for almost 200 years - until 1913. The founder of the company was named Louis Pigny, but he bequeathed the business to his niece's husband Pierre Lepage, and it was under this name that the brand became famous throughout Europe. The company had many clients, including some of the most upper strata society - they supplied weapons to both the French king Louis XV and the famous commander Moritz of Saxony.
Pushkin is already talking about his contemporary Jean Lepage (Pierre's nephew). Several rulers of France ordered weapons from him: Louis XVI, Napoleon (first consul, then emperor), Louis XVIII. Even during the Great french revolution Lepage could not do without it - during the storming of the Bastille and the July Revolution of 1830, his weapons were distributed to the people.
And Lensky “chose” pistols for the duel from a company that produced high-quality and luxurious weapons. Alexander Pushkin himself had the same ones. It is believed that a pair of pistols were made for Pushkin on his order shortly before the duel with Dantes.
Portrait of Abraham-Louis Breguet
Breguet Marine 8828 watch
The history of the house of Breguet began in 1775, when watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747 – 1823) opened his first workshop on the Quai de l’Horloge in Paris. Breguet inherited his interest in watchmaking from his stepfather, a watchmaker, for whom he worked as an apprentice as a boy. At the age of 15, to continue his studies, Breguet came from Switzerland to Paris, with which most of the history of Breguet will be connected.
Portrait of Abraham-Louis Breguet
One of Breguet's first inventions was the automatic, or “perpetual” watch, which he first sold in 1780. He equipped the pocket watch with a platinum rotor, which rotated under the influence of the movement of the watch and thereby set the winding mechanism in motion. Thus, the watch no longer required additional winding using a key.
Automatic Breguet watch N°1/8/82
By the end of the 18th century, pocket watches still could not boast of high accuracy: under the influence of gravitational forces, the clock rate inevitably either accelerated or slowed down. The first person to solve this problem was Breguet. In 1801, the watchmaker received a patent for his most famous invention - the tourbillon. Its essence was that Breguet installed a movable platform in the watch with an escapement mechanism, which, rotating at a given point in time, helped to level out the movement error. Many watch manufacturers successfully use the tourbillon to this day.
Watercolor illustration for the tourbillon patent, 180
Breguet made another revolution in watchmaking in 1812, when his workshop completed work on the first wristwatch. By order of the Queen of Naples, Caroline Murat, the youngest sister of Napoleon Bonoparte, Breguet created an ultra-thin watch with a thermometer for that time and placed it on a bracelet made of gold threads. Unfortunately, the unique watch has not survived, and the only reminder of it is records in the archives of the Breguet house
Caroline Bonaparte with her daughter, Marie Vigée-Lebrun, 1807.
Abraham-Louis Breguet's famous clients included Marie Antoinette, Napoleon Bonaparte and Ottoman Sultan Selim III. The creations of the famous watchmaker were especially popular in Russian Empire. In 1808, Breguet opened its representative office in Russia in St. Petersburg - the “Russian House”, and in 1814 Alexander I himself came to Breguet’s Paris workshop. On the day of his arrival, the emperor purchased a watch and left an order for eight “pedometers” - metronomes for marching time regulation
Emperor Alexander I. Francois Pascal Simon Gerard, 1814
The Breguet workshops moved to Breguet's native Switzerland only in 1976. From now on, all watch production is based in the Vallée de Joux near Geneva, and Breguet products become a symbol of Swiss watchmaking
Pictured: Breguet Manufacture in Vallée de Joux
IN once again the Breguet house loudly announced itself in 1998. Just like in early XIX century Breguet managed to create wrist watch To surprise Caroline Murat, at the end of the 20th century, Breguet craftsmen created the smallest automatic chronograph movement in the world for women.
Breguet Marine 8828 watch
In addition to gravity, magnetic fields also affect the accuracy of watches. Breguet craftsmen, on the other hand, managed to use magnetism to improve the precision of their products. In 2010, the Breguet house received a patent for the “magnetic axis” invented by the manufacture, with which it began new stage in the history of the house and watchmaking. Using magnets, this system ensures the consistency and reliability of the balance of the movement, making the watch even more perfect.
Tradition Chronographe Independent_7077BB