Artefact of the month - November 2024

“Dried kissel skin made from strawberries, used as a substitute for cream in tea; from the village of Demeslowskaja in the Arkhangelsk Governorate.”

This has been written in beautiful handwriting with a fountain pen in the old main catalogue of the museum’s ethnographic collections. The Arkhangelsk Governorate is located on the coast of the White Sea in Russia, the exact location of the village is not known.

When you say that the museum’s collections include dried kissel or its skin, the response is often “What on earth!” and amused laughter. Our collections really do include all sorts of things, as there are approximately half a million artefacts in total. Kissel skin was perhaps a curiosity, at least from a Finnish perspective, already upon its arrival at the museum. It was part of a collection of miscellaneous everyday artefacts collected in Northern Russia by Hj. Basiliev, holder of a master’s degree. The artefacts were included in the collections in 1889.

What on earth is dried kissel skin?

At first, tea and kissel may not seem like an obvious combination. However, tea drinkers who have travelled in Russia may have been served a selection of jams to add to their tea. Different berry jams are typical accompaniments to tea in Russia, providing both flavour and sweetness. In particular, strawberry jam is considered typical. You can add jam to the tea or sip tea ‘through’ a small spoonful of jam in the mouth.

It is possible that this dried kissel skin was not a substitute for cream, as recorded in the main catalogue, but a substitute for jam. Dried kissel keeps longer than jam and is light to carry. Unfortunately, no detailed information has been recorded about the dried kissel, its use or who made it. This was typical at the time of collection. It is also not known whether such a product was typical in the area or just a local curiosity.

Adventures of the kissel skin in the museum collections and a museum worker’s heart

Sometimes, an artefact begins to live a life somewhat larger than its size in the museum or in the heart of a museum worker. An artefact can be significant because it tells something really essential about its time. Significance can also be personal and arise from the emotions stirred by an object.

My first encounter with the kissel skin took place in the early 2010s when I was doing an internship at the then Museum of Cultures in Helsinki. The entry about the kissel skin being added to the collections caught my eye in the old main catalogue and made me laugh out loud. When I wondered at the matter, a senior colleague said that the kissel was probably already eaten by insect pests and lost. However, the kissel stuck in my mind, and I even told my friends about it over the years.

Many (museum work) years later, however, the kissel skin was suddenly in front of my eyes! I was handling artefacts from an old storage collection, when this old acquaintance emerged from one transport box. The kissel had been spared by insect pests and, apart from a few broken off pieces, it was in really good condition.

130 years of history

The kissel skin has possibly been stored all its museum years in a small cardboard box with a glass cover. Such boxes were used in the museum as far back as the 19th century for storing small items. Usually, storage boxes are replaced with newer ones, but it was decided to keep the home of the kissel, which was more than 100 years old, as part of the artefact and as a memory of museum-historical value. A similar artefact would no longer be included in the collections, so the kissel skin also represents the collection policy of its time.

The kissel moved to live in the special cold store of the Finnish Heritage Agency's Collection and Conservation Centre, where food items in the collections are stored. At that point in time, the kissel’s journey to fame began. Tours are often organised at the Collection and Conservation Centre, both for the in-house employees and guests, and the cold store is part of the tour. The kissel is often mentioned as an example of the food items in the collections because it is an amusing artefact, makes people laugh and has a personal story to go with it. With the tours, the kissel has also become significant for many other museum professionals. Quite a journey for one kissel skin over 130 years!

Sanna Särkelä