It first appeared in the second half of the 17th century in what is today known as the Koverninsky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The handicraft was named Khokhloma after a trade settlement in the same oblast, where craftsmen had been known for making and selling their handmade goods between the 18th and early 20th centuries. The making of khokhloma was first mentioned in 1659 in the letter of a boyar called Morozov to his bailiff, containing an order for the following: "One hundred painted dishes polished with powdered tin, both large and medium, of the very same kind possessed by us earlier, not forgetting twenty large painted wine bowls, twenty medium, and twenty somewhat smaller".[1]
The handicraft owes its origin to the Old Believers, who, fleeing from persecutions of officials, took refuge in local woods. Even earlier, however, local villagers had experience in making tableware from soft woods. Among the schismatics there were icon-painters, who taught local craftsmen this painting technique.