Metal bow knot

Ukranians

Russian Empire, Yekaterinoslav province, Slavyanoserbsk district, village The Third Company

кон. XIX в. – нач. XX в.

Decorations/jewelry

Metal; glass

length 8.5; width 2.5; diameter 3.5

РЭМ 1728-115

Sample of a gilt metal bow knot with a dukach. A dukach is a women’s neck and breast decoration in the form of a large coin, and its wearing was widespread in the territory of Chernigov and Poltava Provinces, and in the Slobozhanschina region. People born in these provinces who resettled to the Azov coast and North Black Sea coast in the late 18th–19th centuries retained the tradition of wearing such decorations up to the break of the 19th and 20th centuries. The name “dukach” originates from ducats, gold coins that were in circulation in Europe. Initially, dukaches were made from Austrian ducats of Maria Theresa, whose name got attached to this decoration. Later, Austrian coins were replaced by Russian rubles, or were manufactured by local goldsmith artisans using die stamping or casting techniques. Goldsmiths often decorated one side of a dukach with religious images, and the other one, with a portrait of the Empress Elizabeth or Catherine II. Dukaches were worn together with namisto, a neck decoration, or on a separate cord or chain. Besides, it was common to wear a dukach on a cast metal (silver or gilt) bow knot attached to a ribbon, cord, or chain. The prominent ethnographer F. K. Volkov described the tradition of giving a dukach to a newborn baby, or most often to its mother on the occasion of successful childbirth. These decorations were kept in the family and passed down from mother to daughter. One could buy a dukach in a bazaar; in particular, in the city of Nezhin in the 1860s one could see market women selling little crosses and earrings, and dukaches among them.