The illustrations in this Calendar reproduce a selection of objefs de vertu from the rich store of art treasures preserved in the Department of Russian Culture in the Hermitage, Leningrad, one of the world's leading museums. The Department, founded in 1941, now owns over 300000 objects of artistic and historico-cultural interest, which come from the Winter Palace (formerly the official residence of the Russian tsars, but nowadays part of the Museum), from royal country palaces, mansions of the St Petersburg aristocracy, and private collections. These materials illustrate the development of science, technology, artistic craftsmanship and the fine arts in Russia from distant past up to the early decades of the twentieth century.
The specimens reproduced in the Calendar range in date from the eighteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century, and represent a period of extensive production of decorative art objects.