STYLISTIC AND TYPOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF TULA’S COLD WEAPON OF XVIII-XIX CENTURIES
The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the decorative heritage and the organization of apprenticeship of masters at Tula’s arms factory. Writing the article cultural-historical and museum-expert methods were used. The main content of the study is the analysis of archival documents of Tula city, the State Historical Museum and the Military-historical Museum of the engineering army and communication army of St. Petersburg, the names of Russian and Swedish craftsmen who were invited or captured, as well as the names of talented Russian «forgerers» were installed. Major attention is paid to the identification of typical stylistic features of Tula’s masters crafts. The author describes the details of the apprenticeship organization at the factory.