Examples of art made of finift enamel

Finift is enamel used to adorn patterns on metal and porcelain objects. It is a thin layer of easily fusible glass affixed to the surface of ceramic and metal products.

Later, the term "finift" came to refer to metal products decorated with such enamel, and the craftsmen who produced these items were called "finifters." "Finift" also denotes the technique of creating such objects.

Finift was used in the Kievan Rus during the princely times and in the Hetmanate period during the 17th–18th centuries.^[1][2]

It is also employed in contemporary jewelry craft.

Among Ukrainian finifters:

• Fedir Aaronsky;
• Mykhailo Bilousovych, native of Gogolivska Sotnia of the Hetmanate.

Literature

• Signatured and dated finifts by Ukrainian masters in art monuments of the 17th–18th centuries / Shultz I.V. // Lavrsky Almanac. Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in the context of history and culture: Collection of scientific works. – Issue 3. – Kyiv, 2001. – P. 145–154.

References