The Pure Spring – Craft and Craftsmen of the USSR –

“‘It is to these folk artists that my book is dedicated. The fabulous horses and birds described here are not merely exotic ethnographical relics: they have been taken from ordinary everyday life in which deep historical roots are interwoven with the young green shoots of the tree of life, affirming in it the laws of eternal beauty.’ The author”

“The founders of art were potters, blacksmiths and goldsmiths, men and women weavers, stonemasons, carpenters, wood- en stone-carvers, armorers … whose delightful artistic articles fill museums today. Maxim Gorky”