The folk art of the Kholmogory bone carving is really unique. For more than 400 years the northerners produce raw materials – the bones of seals, fish, walruses and the fossil mammoth bone, - for making inimitable carved items. The Kholmogorskiy bone carvers use the precious elephant bone, which they import from abroad, as well as the usual cow cylindrical bone – the bobbin – which starts to look as a noble material in the hands of the experienced masters.
Shesheniny brothers who created their carvings in the Moscow Kremlin Armoury became the best bone carvers of the 17th century – the time when this folk craft started developing.
In the 18th century the Kholmogory craft reached the period of flourishing, and it was then that the carvers skillfully created elite items from elephant, mammoth and walrus bones – various caskets, boxes, tobacco boxes, miniature secretaires, decorative cups, portrait plates, bracelets and combs decorated with the Kholmogory bone carving.
All these items were characterized by their exquisite form, the unusual combination of the openwork ornaments with the relief images and the gracefulness of their technique.