Natalya Baratova

J

eweler Andrei Ananov derived the formula of immortality. At least for himself. His laconic message to the eternity: a few grams of gold, a little enamel, a tiny bit of diamonds, a small part of soul and a wind of inspiration. And all is accompanied with ‘Ananov’, his modest trademark.
One can find items with this trademark in the collections of Her Royal Majesty The Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II, Her Royal Majesty The Queen of Spain Sophie, Prince of Monaco Rainier III and many celebrities, including Albert Gore and Montserrat Caballe.
Andrei Ananov is Russia’s honored worker of arts and the head of his own firm called Ananov, Russian Jewelry Art. The firm’s works have been displayed in the Moscow Kremlin’s Armory Museum, at exhibitions in Paris, London, Genoa, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Stockholm, San Paulo. Ananov has been awarded with the Silver Lion international prize (Paris, 1991), the Big Gold European Medal (Genoa, 1992), the Carl Faberge Order of the First Degree and the Best Jeweler of the Century title (Moscow, 2000).
Ananov’s own jewelry firm was set up in 1989 but the road to success that led him to fame and recognition started much earlier.
It was the first time in 1974 that Andrei Ananov, a 29-year-old actor and director, a graduate of the Institute of theater, music and cinematography, laid his hands on jewelry tools while visiting his friend. After scrapping off a piece of silver wire with a needle file he polished it on a grinding wheel and got carried away by the craft that was new to him. Ananov spent all his time, free from the main job, on mastering the technology of the jewelry-making craft. Then, orders started coming. Being his own welder, fuller, blacksmith, artist and art council, manager and traveling salesman, cashier and driver Ananov was rushing about between work in the theater and cinema and his new passion. A professional, skilled director, who staged a lot of plays, Ananov realized that he would never become a second Meyerkhold of the Russian theater but that in jewelry making he could accomplish a lot. He took his chance and it was no mistake. As far as the West is concerned, Ananov is the most famous and expensive Russian jeweler today. And he is recognized as the best in his homeland.
Andrei considers himself being a hot-tempered and ambitious man. He says that he always dreamed of becoming a star. But historic precedents proved that in Russia even a genius could die in poverty and that he would be appreciated only after that. So, at best the road to fame could be started abroad. That is why Ananov began his story of success in Paris, two years after he opened his own jewelry workshop, after a famous French firm offered him a contract and his workshop was given the famous name Faberge par Ananov.
Starting his career in jewelry making Andrei Ananov formulated his ‘super task’: to bring the Russian jewelry art back to the level that Faberge reached in his time. He thought that it would become his lifework. But Ananov achieved the desired success in just seven years. In Ananov’s opinion, today his firm’s craftsmen are head and shoulders above most of craftsmen in czarist Russia.
Take that same Faberge for example. Being a supplier of His Majesty’s Court he could distribute orders and put his trademark on them later. Faberge had many craftsmen but there were also people, who worked for him under contracts and who often did not have enough time to check the quality of work. That is why there were various items with a different degree of perfection: some of them were of the highest degree, some overladen with profuse surface elements were of the average degree and far from being perfect.
Ananov feels absolutely confident in the advantages of items with the Ananov trademark. He himself says that he works for professionals. An ordinary customer is mainly a dilettante, who rarely realizes what he spends his money for. His criterion is very simple: it is either beautiful or not. Only a few can appreciate the basic idea and its realization. As for Ananov, he always considers the jewelry art being a theater like the life itself. And he feels proud that not a single expert, a connoisseur of art would never say that Ananov does a slapdash work.
Precisely Ananov, not his craftsmen. That is why he does not employ artists. He himself is an artist. It has been this way from the very first day. According to Andrei, there is a specific peculiarity of jewelry making: an artist himself should be able to do what he depicts on sketch. Once a craftsman told him: "It is impossible to do this". Ananov took the work and did it brilliantly. After that no one used the word ‘impossible’ when talking to him. He devises, draws and, then, sets a task for craftsmen. And there appears another masterpiece. Like these Great Christian Cathedrals in Easter eggs.