This wooden clothes brush with badger bristles from a dressing-table set is believed to have belonged to the family of Kamilla and Vasily Ivashev, who lived in Turinsk since 1836. On December 14, 1825, the Decembrist Revolt took place at Senate Square in Saint Petersburg. In July 1826, a trial was held, and Vasily Ivashev was initially sentenced to 20 years of hard labor, after which he was to settle in Siberia for the rest of his life. A month later, his sentence was changed to 15 years.

In the 19th century, the aristocrats attached great importance to their appearance. The novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” by Alexander Pushkin has the following lines,

Clothes were to be taken proper care of so that their properties did not deteriorate. One of the ways to clean clothes was dry cleaning which required a special clothes brush.

A brush is a device composed of thin long elastic bristles typically set into a handle and is used for cleaning by moving the applied part across the surface of the material.

There are different types of brushes, such brushes for shoes, clothes, hats, and household needs.

The main physical properties that determine the quality of natural bristles are elasticity, hardness, thickness, and length. These indicators depend on the part of an animal’s body where bristles grow, such as the back or the sides.

Bristles can be white, gray, yellow, and black. The white ones are considered the most valuable. However, pure white bristles are a rare find, since there is usually some extra shade found in white fur. Bleaching the bristles makes them perfectly white.

The brush on display is made of badger bristles. Badger hair is resilient and elastic and therefore resistant to tearing and abrasion. The pointed tips of the hair are pleasantly soft to touch. Blocks and handles for brushes are usually made of hardwood, such as beech, birch, oak, and ash. The production of brushes consists of the following stages: making a block, preparing bristles, embedding bristles in the block, and applying finishes.