Russian tea kettle?
There’s a mystery item up here in the archives…
... and it appears to
be some sort of kettle or tea-making device. A rudimentary translation of the Russian
instructions booklet tells us that this item is in fact ‘A domestic electric
samovar with a thermal switch’.
A bit of further online research has revealed that a samovar is ‘a heated metal
container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and around Russia’.
Since the heated water is typically used to make tea, it has a ring-shaped attachment
around the chimney, to hold a heated teapot. Whilst coal or charcoal was
traditionally used to heat samovars, ours is electric.
Why do we have such an item? The samovar was made in 1992
but we think that it was brought to the school a few years later. There was one
student studying Russian in 1996-1997, and one more a year later. We suspect
that one of these students or their teachers brought this into school.
- Was the Samovar yours?
- And if so, what is the story behind it?
- Or do you remember it being used in the classroom?
- And if so, what were your experiences of learning Russian at the Maynard in the 1990s?
As always, please be in touch - we'd love to hear from you.
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