An independent journal on the history and workings of stoves. We are not stove-makers or a workshop, we do not carry out any work or sell anything, and we have no connection to the previous website on this domain. Leave building, repairing and cleaning stoves to specialists.
Stove history
In an old house, the stove was far more than a source of heat. The layout of the cottage, the rhythm of the day and home life itself took shape around it: people cooked by the stove, dried things on it, warmed up beside it and whiled away the evenings there. Stoves came in many forms — huge and compact, plain and ornate. Here we describe them in general terms, without dates or legends.
In the old house, the stove was kitchen, drying rack, bed and a spot for long conversations all at once. No wonder so many proverbs and fairy tales were told about it.
How this section works: we describe the types of stoves familiar from domestic life and their place in the home in general terms, drawing on encyclopedic and ethnographic dictionaries and museum materials. We give no dates, names or drawings, and we don't invent historical details.
The types of stoves that dictionaries and museum exhibits talk about most often.
The center of daily life in a Russian peasant cottage. People cooked and baked bread in it, slept and warmed up on top of it, and dried clothes beside it. Large and massive, it held its heat for a long time and took pride of place in the house.
A compact stove that warms a room quickly. It takes up little space, fits easily into a room and is used mainly for heating rather than cooking.
A stove that combines a heating section with a cooking section, so it both warms the house and lets you cook. It is often placed where the kitchen meets the living room so that both get the heat.
A stove faced with stove tiles — glazed ceramic tiles. Smooth or in relief, plain or painted, the tiles turned the stove into an ornament for the room and spoke to the taste of both the owners and the craftsmen.
A stove with a warm bench where you could lie down and warm up. The bench was one of the coziest spots in the house, the place people climbed onto to thaw out after coming in from the cold.
A small stove with a metal cooktop for preparing meals. It heats the kitchen, and sometimes the room next door, and you can still find it in country houses and summer cottages.
The stove shaped the layout of the cottage. Where it stood determined where the dining table and the sleeping places would go and where the woman of the house would spend most of her day. The corner by the stove was a work area: food was cooked there, and utensils and water were kept close at hand.
The fire in the stove set the rhythm of the day. It was lit in the morning to cook food and warm the house, and the heat stored in the masonry lingered long after the wood had burned down. Shoes and clothes were dried around the stove, and on long winter evenings the whole family gathered by it.
The stove-maker's craft has always been considered respected and demanding work. A good craftsman was known throughout the area, and the skill of building a stove that heats well and doesn't smoke was passed down from master to apprentice. We remember this tradition without names, as part of a culture preserved by museums of wooden architecture and by old houses that are still lived in.
Stove tiles are ceramic tiles used to face stoves. They not only protected the masonry but also turned the stove into the main decorative feature of the room. An ornate tiled stove could be the pride of the whole family.
Stove tiles can be smooth or in relief, plain or painted. They feature flowers and grasses, birds and animals, scenes from everyday life and geometric patterns. Sometimes every tile repeats its neighbor, and sometimes a design is built up from many tiles into one large picture.
Historic tiled stoves can be seen in museums and period interiors. If such a stove has survived in your home, treat its facing with care: don't chip the tiles, don't scrub them with abrasives, and leave repairs to a specialist who knows how to work with old ceramics.
Brick, clay, stove tiles, doors and dampers, insulation and finishes. Our catalog of articles is here too.
What to do about an old stove in your house: inspection, finding a specialist, deciding on repairs and warning signs.
Looking after a stove through the seasons, plus the safety essentials that apply all year round.
Information about stoves is given in general terms, based on encyclopedic and ethnographic dictionaries, materials from museums of wooden architecture and the fire-safety rules of Russia's Emergencies Ministry; fire-safety rules differ by country, so check the ones that apply where you live. Only a specialist who has inspected your stove and chimney in person can tell you what condition they are in and whether they are safe to use.