Martinov, Fedor

London & St Petersburg; cabinet maker (fl. 1717-1750)

A number of Russian apprentices, described as ‘pensioners’, were sent here by Peter the Great (1692-1725) to both Holland and England to train as furniture makers with master craftsmen. Martinov was one of those sent to London between 1716 and 1717 and returned to St Petersburg in 1724 as a highly-skilled craftsman, and with the help of funding from the Tsar, set up a workshop where he worked for both for the Tsar, his family and on commissions for the Russian nobility. It is not known with whom he trained whilst in London but there are surviving drawings of English-style case furniture (illus. Guseva, Furniture, History (1994), figs. 1-3) produced by Martynov for the Empress Anna Iovannovna. His workshop, in which he also trained apprentices, is recorded in St Petersburg until 1750.

Source: Guseva, ‘Fedor Martynov, Russian Master Cabinet Maker’, Furniture History (1994).