Kasli art castings

History

Construction of the  foundry in Kasli started in 1745 . In 1749 the plant was commissioned , and in 1751 was bought by the Demidovs, great Russian industrialists. The Kasli foundry was a relatively small enterprize, with one blast furnace and a factory producing iron. The major part of workers were bondmen, that was an ordinary situation at those times. Initially, the plant produced cast iron and iron, and executed military orders (producing cannons, balls and case-shot )

In 1809 Demidov sold the factory to the merchant L.I.Rastorguev. In the years 1811-1817 due to the Napoleonic Wars the plant specialized at mass production of balls , bombs, grenades and case-shot . After 1817 the foundry started a gradual transition to the production of household items - iron crockery, openwork gates and fences, cabinet goods. The production of art castings was established only at the early 1850s . At that time the masters began the casting of famous horse sculptures  on the models by P.K. Klodt, that was a turning point for the development of animal genre of Kasli art casting.

At the beginnng of 20th century due to increased investment Kasli foundry turned into the main Ironworks of the District, and in 1907 became the part of the English-Kyshtym joint-stock company.  However, management plans to further development were prevented by the First World War and the October Revolution of 1917. Since 1914, the plant began to produce mortar shells for artillery, consequently, the production of art castings was  resumed in the early 1920s. In 1934, at the factory there was commissioned a workshop of art castings. The  foundry also started producing large-size castings for bridges and parks of the cities of the USSR . Currently Kasli foundry produces a  great variety of high quality architectural and art castings. The products of the plant are treated as a recognized Russian brand.

International fame

In the second half of the 18th century, the products of Kasli foundry was actively exported to Europe, mainly to England, where at that time there was a crisis of metallurgy. However, with the transition of European plants to the more advanced production technologies , the export of Russian metal to Europe stopped. Over half a century the plant products were not exported from Russia. Only in the 1860s Kasli art casting appeared at the international exhibitions.

Kasli art casting became well-known abroad. In 1867 the plant products won a silver medal at the World exhibition in Paris. The awards of Kasli castings include a big gold medal at an exhibition in Vienna (1873 ) , a bronze medal at the exhibition in Philadelphia (1876 ) , an honorary diploma of the exhibition in Copenhagen (1888) , a bronze medal at the World Exhibition in Chicago (1893) , a gold medal at the international exhibition in Stockholm (1897).

Каслинский чугунный павильон

In 1900 Kasli iron and art castings took the Grand Prix at the World Art and Industry Exhibition in Paris. Specially for this exhibition Kasli masters created a huge cast iron pavilion-palace in the Byzantine style on the project by E.Baumgarten. The pavilion literally struck jury and visitors of the exhibition. Entrance to the palace was decorated with sculpture “Russia” by N.Laveretskiy. After the exhibition , several visitors offered to purchase pavilion with all exhibits, including the sculpture " Russia ." However, Russian flatly refused to sell abroad this sculpture because it demonstrated a symbolism of Russian power. As a result, the pavilion returned to its homeland . At the moment Cast iron palace is found in the Museum of Fine Arts (Yekaterinburg) . The Pavilion is included in UNESCO catalog as the world's only architectural structure of cast iron, located in the museum's collection .

The unprecedented success of the Ural masters in Paris attracted foreign investors to the plant. Casting production from Kasli interested Englishmen . In 1906 Kasli products received a gold medal at the exhibition in Milan , and a year later the plant became a part of the English- Kyshtym corporation. British engineer Leslie Urquhart was appointed to the post of Director. The plant gradually increased its capacity through the employment increase, as well as modernization of production base and production technologies.

After the events of 1917 Anglo-Kyshtym corporation was abolished, and the production of artistic castings resumed only in the early 1920s. Today Kasli products are in great requisition among Russian consumers, they are regularly demonstrated at the Russian exhibitions. One of the last major orders was the production of 500 lampposts that were installed on one of the quays of Sochi, the capital of the Winter Olympics-2014.

Learn more:

http://www.kac3.ru/history/

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B8
http://kasly.su/History_Kasly_08.htm
http://kasly.su/History_Kasly_04.htm

Photoblog:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?s=fdf6e4e2b0e37aad0c09c1097e6950dd&t=1066337&page=8