The Premier Site for Russian Culture
Swedish jeweller, silversmith, goldsmith. Younger brother of Carl Edvard Bolin, father of Wilhelm James Bolin. Born in Stockholm (1818) in the family of Swedish sea captain and merchant Jonas Wilhelm Bolin (1774–1831) and his wife Charlotta Wilhelmina Ostermark (1783–1856). Grew up on Wollmar Yxkullsgatan in Södermalm (1820s). Invited to Russia by his elder brother (1836). Worked under Carl Edvard Bolin in St Petersburg (1836–50) and moved to Moscow (1850), where he married Natalie Rosenstrauch (1850), who gave birth to children Sophie (1856), Mathilde (1858), Maria (1859), Robert (1860), Wilhelm James (1861), Edvard (1863), Henrik (1866) and Rudolf (1874). Opened a branch of C. E. Bolin in Moscow in partnership with James Steuart Shanks from the village of Dalserf in Scotland (1852). Headed the department of jewellery and silverware of Shanks & Bolin, Magasin Anglais (1852–88), which sold fashionable outfits and accessories on territory now occupied by the Lubyanka (1852–80) and 9/10 Kuznetsky Most (1880–88). Died in Moscow and buried at the German Cemetery in Lefortovo (1888).