The founder of the company “Sazikov” – Pavel Fedorovich, came from the economic peasants of the “Moscow province of the Bogorodsky district of the Vokhonsky volost”. Currently, this place is called Pavlovsky Posad. He arrived in Moscow and enrolled in the merchant class in 1796.

The exact date of the legislative decision of the Department of Manufactories and Internal Trade to give the Sazikovs’ workshop the status of a factory is 1836. And in 1837, Ignatiy Pavlovich Sazikov, the son of Pavel Fedorovich, received the highest permission to be called the Court Silverware Manufacturer.

Ignatius Sazikov repeatedly traveled outside the Russian Empire in search of new technologies, materials, mechanisms and experience. The equipment of the manufactory even now seems to be something in the spirit of science fiction novels, and even for their time, the Sazikovs were miracle workers at all. The latest technology, newfangled principles of organization, the steam engine and guilloche machines, a variety of molds and casting devices.

One of the first in Russia, the Sazikovs introduced the division of labor: each master was responsible for a specific part of the process in which he sought to achieve performance excellence – whether it was casting, chasing or polishing. The Sazikovs decided to open a school at their enterprise, where up to eighty craftsmen were trained at the same time.

Ignatiy Sazikov was not only a talented organizer, but also an outstanding jeweler. For the unique technique of work and the complexity of the compositions, he was called the “Russian Benvenuto Cellini” – in honor of the famous Italian jeweler.

The manufactory’s silver products retained the features of baroque, rococo and empire – styles known and familiar to the eye of wealthy customers. The shapes of the shells, the whimsical curves, the flowing curves of the plants… But Sazikov wants something different and starts thinking about creating something more “Russian”.

The works of Pavel Ignatievich Sazikov shocked his contemporaries with their detail, complexity, scope. The most famous of them is a silver candelabra decorated with a sculptural scene – “Dmitry Donskoy”. At the World Exhibition in London, this work brought the master a gold medal. He also created an extraordinary collection of silverware dedicated to the Russian peasantry – keeping in mind his roots.

Sazikov icons and church utensils

Pavel Fedorovich Sazikov founded a silverware workshop in Moscow in 1793. The workshop gradually expanded and became known as the factory. The factory produced silverware and church utensils, and its annual turnover reached 100,000 rubles.

Ignatiy Pavlovich Sazikov (1796–1868) became the successor of the family business, who made a special trip to Europe to get acquainted with the experience of manufacturing products from precious and non-ferrous metals, with the latest technological innovations. The acquired knowledge helped him master precision jewelry casting and improve coinage at his enterprise. In 1835, Sazikov’s company received a gold medal at the Moscow exhibition for a salary of wrought silver for the throne of one of the Moscow churches, and two years later, Ignatiy Pavlovich Sazikov, the first among Russian craftsmen, “was allowed to be called a court silverware manufacturer” and put on the company’s products National emblem.

Connoisseurs admired the art with which the royal gates were made in the Miracle Monastery. Church orders brought a substantial part of the company’s income. The factory produced arks, chasubles of icons, goblets, monstrances, lampadas. For St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Sazikov’s company made utensils “according to drawings from ancient objects.”

89 things were made only from state-owned silver. “Weight in all 89 things is 56 pounds 32 pounds and 41 spools, and 69,429 silver rubles were paid for their work. From his own silver, the manufacturer Sazikov presented fifty-seven items: Gospels, vessels, crosses, censers, sprinklers, and so on. They weigh 2 poods 25 pounds and 47 spools, and their price is 8288 silver rubles.