Brief Historical Outline Of Peter Privaloff’s Life and Work

The son of a serf girl and Count Sheremetiev, who was an outstanding figure in Russian 18^th-century history, Peter Privaloff demonstrated his artistic talents at a very early age and Count Sheremetiev sent his illegitimate son to study at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In St. Petersburg, Peter Privaloff met a jeweler Louis Duval, who was close to the Imperial Court, and who infected Privaloff with love and taste for jewelry and precious stones. Young Privaloff also believed that beauty affects human souls in a positive way.

Duval was most impressed with Privaloff’s talents and took the young man to work as an apprentice at his factory. However, after his studies, Privaloff was destined to work as a serf at the Duval factory in St. Petersburg.

Privaloff had a lot of friends among St. Petersburg foreign community, was dreaming of seeing the world and working with European jewelers. He escaped Russia, traveled to Warsaw, and then to Paris. He spent a whole decade traveling all over Europe, visiting Venice, Algeria, Paris, London, Paris again.

On the way to London his ship was captured by pirates, Privaloff was kidnapped and taken to Algeria. He spent about 18 months in Algiers, or Tunisia, where he worked under the Chief jeweler of the Ruler of Kasba, and studied the ways of working with metals and stones the Arab way. An English merchant paid the ransom to set Privaloff free and brought him to Britain, and Privaloff lived in London for almost a year.

But love brought Privaloff back to Paris, and for a couple of years he worked and traveled in Europe, after which Privaloff, having made a full circle, went back to Russia to work under an assumed name. At that time he was 35, rich, and could hardly resemble a romantic youth that arrived in St. Petersburg almost twenty years before.

However, another serf recognized him in the street, and Privaloff was put into prison. His mother addressed Count Sheremetiev who agreed to help him out of jail, but demanded a considerable ransom. Privaloff agreed and paid the required sum, and in 1776 started his own workshop in St. Petersburg. However, Privaloff received freedom from serfdom only after Count Sheremetiev died.

Six years later , in order to marry a girl he had fallen in love with, and mostly to please her father, Privaloff had to use his connections at the court and bought a nobility title for himself. Platon Zubov, a favorite of the Empress, received from Privaloff a unique musical watch with moving figurines and a silver case with rubies., and a massive gold cigarette-holder(case), incrusted with diamonds. Unfortunately, his wife died at childbirth, together with the child.

The last twenty years of his eventful life were more or less smooth, filled with work and pleasures, not without some more adventures, though.

Peter Privaloff died in 1812 during the occupation of Moscow by Napoleon’s troops and the Great Fire of Moscow. His house got burned to the ground, and part of his jewelry works were destroyed or stolen by marauders.

This really fantastic life-story may have served as a basis for a breathtaking feature film, however, up to now, it inspired Marina Korotaeva to start a Russian jewelry company named after this unique Russian personality, an Adventurer and an Artist.

Privaloff’s skills as an engraver, mechanic, and jeweler are worth a special mention: His drafts, sketches, and a few works that remained intact witness to the highest level of art and the fact that Privaloff was much ahead of his time. As an artist, he used the types of setting of precious stones, which allowed him to make inserts of the highest quality out of the material, which was previously considered unacceptable for this purpose.