Andrei Ananov was born in Leningrad. The most famous jeweler of Russia in August celebrated his 72th birthday. This is a man of many talents, but found himself in jewelry. Now Andrey Georgievich is the general director of the jewelry house "Ananov". He was born into a family of professors. If he graduated from the university, he could have become a good physicist, but Andrei became a director, bears the title of Honored Artist of Russia.
Theatre
Andrey Ananov graduated from LGITMIK. By education, he is the director of the drama theater and cinema. In his youth, he did not shun any work, thanks to which he gained invaluable experience as a mechanic and a turner in a factory. He was a young man on a sailing boat. After graduation, directorial activity began. Ananov worked in the drama and comedy theater at the Liteiny, in the Samara theater, at the Komissarzhevskaya Academic Drama Theater.
Then I had to travel around the USSR. Andrei Georgievich staged performances in Novgorod, Pskov, Volgograd, Petrozavodsk, Kazan. During the theater career, he became the director of 44 works. One of the best performances was "Running" according to Bulgakov.
Andrey Ananov. Biography
An important role in the formation of personality was played by the environment in which the jeweler grew up. Andrei Georgievich Ananov had a very intelligent family, his father and mother were professors: dad was a professor at ITMO University, and his mother was a professor-geobotanist. Father went through the Second World War. My maternal grandfather, Nikolai Mezentsev, was a count and a real state adviser. Father's parents were nobles too. And my great-grandfather is a well-known doctor whom Nikolai II himself elevated to the nobility.
The jeweler inherited a manor a few tens of kilometers from St. Petersburg. Both father and Andrei himself were engaged in the restoration of his family castle. Now it’s warm and comfortable there, as if it carries over into the 19th century.
About the manor
Andrei Ananov's country house can rightfully be called a family castle. It was built on land that a hundred years ago belonged to his great-grandfather, a famous doctor.
Unfortunately, this house burned down for a long time, one foundation remained from it, which became the basis of the new house and the entire estate. Andrei Ananov restored it with amazing jewelry accuracy. Now the house looks like a real castle, there is a summer roof terrace. On the one hand, the estate is fenced with a birch alley, on the other - lime. There are many bushes on the territory, because the owner does not like English lawns.
This is the same house in which he now works and in which his personal life flows. Jeweler Andrei Ananov spends a lot of time on his estate, once every 10 days leaving for the city. A workshop is equipped there, he calls it the main room in the house.
Ananov family
Andrei Ananov met his first wife at Lenfilm, her name was Valentina. They lived cheerfully and fervently. The young theater-goer was only 21 years old when he started a family. Andrei Ananov admits that often there was not enough money, but his youth did not give the right to be sad. Once, Valentina left a note in which she admitted that she fell in love with another. In the 90s, she died of cancer.
The second wife of Ananov was called Stella.
With his third wife, Larisa, Andrei met when he was 42 years old, and she was 21. At that time, he was an ordinary theater director. Moreover, he was married to Stella, lived with his second wife for 13 years. Ananov always had a lot of fans, but he did not give anyone a chance and bluntly said that he only loved his wife. So it was with Larisa.
The girl at that time worked at a recreation center, where many young generals were spinning. Andrei hoped that Larisa would find a rich husband and that she would be fine. But one day he saw in her a confident woman and a talented theater-goer. The girl graduated from the institute and became a director. Ananov helped her in every possible way, was worried about the session, put her soul into it. At some point I caught myself thinking that I fell in love with Larisa. The question with the official wife remained open, but she resolved it. The woman asked directly about whether Andrei has a lover, and he told the truth.
Soon, they celebrated a gorgeous wedding with Larisa, but there was nowhere to live. For a week, the newlyweds settled in the motel, and then rented a one-room small apartment.
Recall that the third wife of Andrei Ananov, Larisa, gave him two beautiful daughters: Anastasia and Anna. It was Ane who wanted to entrust his jewelry business.
The current wife of Ananov (Elena) also bore him two daughters - Masha and Olya.
The most important product of the master nevertheless was the family. Jeweler Andrei Ananov recently became a grandfather, his two eldest daughters, Anya and Nastya, gave him grandchildren.
How did you come to jewelry?
Once, a friend of Andrei needed financial help, he came to a friend and during the next glass he noticed a table with interesting tools in the corner of a communal apartment.
The comrade admitted that this workplace belonged to his father, who was a jeweler. He taught his son several tricks, and he sometimes earns it. Ananova was interested in this question. He invited a friend to make a silver ring and sell it.
That evening, the future jeweler first picked up the file and forever fell in love with this matter. A friend taught him several lessons, and Ananov began to master this science. Since then, he took a suitcase with tools on a director’s tour. So Andrey got his first clients. On word of mouth, this specialist was advised to friends and acquaintances, and his friends' friends brought old jewelry, because they trusted him more than the workshops. On rare things the beginning jeweler learned a lot.
Classic self-taught
There were no mentors from Ananov, everything had to be studied by himself. All the masters of jewelry at that time quietly worked in their workshops, the old craftsmen died or went to other countries. The beginning jeweler had to make the tools himself. Fortunately, he had experience working with metal, because in his school years he worked at the factory as a locksmith and a turner. And in childhood, he himself repaired kitchen utensils and electrical appliances.
But a jeweler, besides golden hands, also needs a delicate taste. Here I had to work a little. Ananov went to museums, studied from books, looked at magazines and gained creative experience. At first he tried to copy, because imitation is a mandatory stage of development. A good artist becomes one who first learned to copy the master. Only then does your handwriting appear.
For a long time the young man honed his skills, easy work with a small income gradually grew into more complex jewelry. Ananov Andrei Georgievich wanted to know all the subtleties of this matter, even learned to cut stones in order to have complete freedom in fantasy flights.
Work on the brink of crime
Andrei admits that he is a very conceited person. In his ambitions is to go down in the history of Russian jewelry art, as Faberge did in his time. Therefore, on many of his products, Andrew put the stigma.
But jewelry art died in Russia after 1917. Many masters worked quietly. But Ananov did not hide from anyone, because the law applied to those for whom jewelry was the main income, and Andrei Georgievich at that time worked in the theater.
But there was one unpleasant incident. Ananov had a client who paid not with money, but with diamonds. Andrei Georgievich, of course, was delighted, because in jewelry this is valuable material. And soon they came to him with a search. He hid the pebbles in a bowl with half-eaten borsch. Such a theater was appropriate, because the question of his freedom was at stake.
Exit from the underground
Ananov was the first in the Soviet Union to receive the first license to work with gold and silver. It was 1988, Andrei Georgievich made small Easter eggs and sold through his channels, but there was no hallmark on them. It was a criminal situation. And then Andrei Ananov decided on a desperate step. He collected a collection of things that he did with his own hands, put it in a suitcase, and drove to Moscow. There he made an appointment with the chairman of the committee on precious metals and stones of Russia.
After waiting in line, I went into the office. Silently he walked over, sat down, opened his suitcase and said that if you are a bureaucrat, you can safely call the police, and if you are a specialist, professional and patriot of your country, then please help. Evgeny Matveevich put a magnifying glass in his eye and for a long time examined the creations of the hands of a novice jeweler. Then he picked up the phone … and dialed the number of the northwestern assay inspection, they say, there is a capable young man standing in his office, you need to help him. He signed a contract with a company that had permission to work with precious metals. So he got a cover.
Ananov about diamonds
The best friends of girls are diamonds. Ananov corrects this statement: the best friends of girls are the guys who give diamonds. Why did he become the "king" of precious stones? The fact is that a diamond is very difficult to process (a diamond is the material from which a diamond is made).
Hands to cut a diamond at a time when there were no computer devices, it was quite difficult. The stone was glued onto a stick and a single face was machined on a diamond washer. Then the diamond was re-glued and the next facet was made. And so 57 times.
To manually make the faces even and the same was almost impossible. Therefore, all the old diamonds are crooked. But, oddly enough, just in this lies their charm. It is like a human face: if it has absolutely the right proportions, it is dead, boring.
The price of a diamond is most affected by the quality of the material. If a carat stone does not have a special value, then diamonds higher than a carat are appreciated for the purity of the material and the quality of the cut. The cleaner, the more expensive.
Faberge by Ananov
Once Andrei Georgievich organized an exhibition of his works in St. Petersburg. She was attended by Ms. Sobchak. The jeweler gave her a small pendant in the shape of an egg. After some time, the woman put on jewelry at the reception to the ambassador. A representative of the Faberge house was also present.
In a conversation, he let slip that none of the Russians began to inherit the Faberge case. Sobchak was not taken aback and showed the gift pendant. He was sent for examination and was delighted with the virtuosity of its creator. The Faberge company was not going through its best times and was interested in maintaining its prestige.
Representatives of the company immediately went with a contract to a talented master. It stated that Faberge is a brand, and Ananov is a representative of a new level in products of their class. The company allowed him to put the Faberge stamp on his products. But Andrei Georgievich refused, because he had his own name and wanted his children to continue what they started. Then the company changed the name of the stigma to Faberge from Ananov, which he agreed with pleasure.
Later it turned out that the French used Ananov for their own selfish purposes. In fact, it turned out that Andrei Georgievich had to give them half of his earnings. He terminated the contract with them after 2 years and never put on their products the brand permitted by them.
Himself a PR man
Still, the director’s vein sometimes made its way through Ananov’s jewelry talent.
Once he was on a visit to Monte Carlo. Although he did not have a large sum of money, he decided to stay at the most prestigious hotel. In the room, the jeweler discovered champagne and a postcard from the director of the hotel. Andrei Georgievich took this opportunity and decided to make an adventure. He gave in return his business card with a small pendant. The result was not long in coming: the jeweler was invited to dinner. It is worth adding that the director of the hotel was familiar with the Prince of Monaco. Now Rainier III has a collection of works by Ananov.
