Zolotkovo

Zolotkovo was a small village in the forested Meshchera country before it became a centre of glassmaking. In 1775 the nobleman Foma Maltsov founded a works here to make cut and decorated crystal vessels. He sought to produce fashionable glass painted with gold and silver and engaged Joseph Shtuk, a craftsman from Bohemia, to teach two of his own people the technique. The factory tied the village to the growing glass industry of the region, where woodland and sand supplied essential materials.