Porcelain

Gzhel

Gzhel is the name of a major ceramics center situated some fifty kilometers southeast of Moscow. The village of Gzhel is mentioned for the first time in the fourteenth century in the testament of Ivan Kalita the Moneybag, the Grand Prince of Muscovy. Otherwise historical chronicles note that the dominant pursuit of the local population was the making of pottery, for which reason the very name of Gzhel derives in all likelihood from the Russian verb zhech which means burn in the sense of firing clay. Though the secrets of the craft were handed down from generation to generation long before, Gzhel really rose to fame as a large center of ceramics in the eighteenth century when local potters mastered the making of majolica or majolica tin-glazed earthenware, which owes sonbriguet to the island of Majorca, where these ceramic wares were made.

At that time majolica wares were called in Russia tsenina. The origin of the word is not known exactly. Majolica wares were termed in Europe faience. The product was usually made of tinted clays, had a massive porous shell, and was decorated with enamel colours in polychromatic, typically peasant-style designs. True, tsenina was first manufactured in Moscow at the establishment of the merchant Afanasy Grebenshchikov, who employed a number of potters from Gzhel. Returning home and having learned the secrets of majolica manufacture, they started their own potteries. Though we have no idea who they were-their names have been lost - they made so fine a start that within the space of but several years, Gzhel majolica was already successfully competing with Grebenshchikov's produce.
Whereas the celebrated Italian Renaissance majolica borrowed subject material from contemporary painting and served an exclusively decorative purpose (produced mostly were large vases, giant dishes and bas-reliefs), Gzhel ware was, on the contrary, of utilitarian shape and form and was decorated with the two-dimensional designs that are typically of folk origin; the large local pools of bright color displayed a marked affinity with the lubok, the Russian folk picture or broadside.

The range of Gzhel majolica included virtually the entire assortment of domestic utensils, such as breakfast and soup plates, dinner-services, mugs, tankards, and pitchers. More often that was only white-glazed earthenware devoid of decoration; however it was prized precisely because of its hygienic whiteness.
"Syssertiv Farfor" Porcelain Factory

The enterprise, which now produces porcelain tableware and sculpture, was founded on the basis of «Promcooperator» Guild, existed since 1942. First the Guild manufactured earthenware, but from the late 40-ies it came close to renovation of porcelain industry, which had definite traditions in Sysert' - a small porcelain manufacture existed there as far back as the late 19th - the early 20th century.
At present the enterprise produces decorative sculpture on subjects of folk fairy-tales of the Urals Russian narrative poems and ballads; tea- and coffee-sets, decorative vases. Usually the articles are decorated with underglaze painting, but sometimes overglaze painting is applied. Soft brownish-grey and light blue tones are mostly used in painting. Ornamental concepts are often found in the landscapes of the Urals.

The younger generation of artists and technologists works much at technology improvement; they are taking a great interest in manufacture of unique articles of modern shapes. About 480 people work at the enterprise; annual production output is about 1,5 million pieces.

Collections of Sysert' artworks are represented in many museums of the Russian Federation. These articles are rewarded with diplomas of different exhibitions.

"Farfor Verbilok"

Verbilki porcelain always occupied an honorary position in the history of russian porcelain industry.
The Manufactory was founded in 1754 by merchant F. Ya. Gardner; it was the first private enterprise, which manufactured high-quality production. These articles were exposed at All-world exhibitions in Paris and Bruxelles.

Contemporary handicraft industry manufactures thin-walled hand-painted porcelain, statuettes, chess sets, tea- and coffee services and other articles, which are notable for a great variety of shapes and decorative finishings.

These porcelain articles are represented in the collections of the principal museums of Russia. Verbilki production is always of great buyers' demand.

Lomonosov Porcelain Factory Under the Tsars- The Foundation of the Factory under Empress Elizabeth

Three hundred years ago no one in Europe had any idea of the materials and techniques used in making porcelain. The secrets of porcelain production were kept so guarded by the Chinese that many magical qualities were ascribed to this mysterious material. Among other ideas, it was believed that porcelain dishes would change color if poisoned food or drink was placed in them. This supposed property was one of the important reasons that prompted European monarchs, including the Russian tsars, to use Chinese porcelain at court.

The market value of this rare and precious china was equal to gold and it was frequently called "white gold". Gifts of porcelain were presented to crowned heads; it was used to decorate state rooms; rulers bartered their subjects for it; food was served on china dishes on special ceremonial occasions; grand ladies even wore shards of china on little gold chains as a particularly refined and expensive form of adornment.

It was not until the early 18th century that the alchemist Johann Friedrich Bottger, who had long searched for the "philosopher's stone", discovered a way to produce "European" hard paste porcelain with the help of the physicist and mathematician Count Ehrenfried Walter Graf von Tschirnhaus. Thus, the first European porcelain was manufactured in securely guarded secrecy at Albrecht Castle in Meissen. China production started in Vienna some years later.

These developments did not escape the notice of Russian Tsar Peter the Great whose reforms were aimed at Europeanizing Russia. He was obliged to import porcelain and stoneware from abroad for daily use and for decoration of the imperial apartments. His wife, the future Empress Catherine I, had a great liking for porcelain. The entire Russian aristocracy followed the example of the imperial couple. During his frequent visits to European countries, Peter I pursued his interest in the secrets of porcelain manufacture and he attempted to introduce it to Russia with the help of foreigners. But all his efforts to establish porcelain production at his own court were in vain.

The European term "porcelain" is derived from the Italian "porcelino" - so called because the pieces of china brought back from the Orient by Marco Polo had the pale pink color of young piglets. Other sources, however, ascribe the origin of the term to the sea crab "porcella" with its delicate pink hue. Initially the term "porzelin" was used in Russia, but from the middle of the 18th century there came into use the word "farfor", which comes from the Turkish and Persian title for the Chinese emperor ("farfur").

Peter I's desire to establish his own porcelain production was finally realized two decades later by his daughter, who was then Empress Elizabeth (1741-1761).

"A clever and kind, yet at the same time a superficial and capricious Russian noblewoman", according to the historian Klyutchevski, Empress Elizabeth combined in her person "the new European ambitions" with the "orthodox, traditional Russian way of life". Born to the sound of cheerful music on the day of the tsar's return from the battle of Poltava, she adored gaiety, song and dance in her youth, while in her more mature years; she came to prefer the pleasures of the table. Yet for all this she always had the interests of her Russia at heart.

Lomonosov Porcelain

Russian porcelain was not a topic of interest among European experts and porcelain lovers until quite recently. There was no comprehensive documentation in existence for one thing, and, also, there were very few pieces from the Lomonosov factory on view in European museums and private collections.

Tsar Peter the Great was fascinated by Bottger's invention at the court of Saxony. From 1718 onward, he tried to penetrate the secret of the 'white gold', but neither the foreigners summoned to the Russian court nor his endeavors to get at the Arcanum at Dresden proved effective. A recipe bought around 1740 at a high price from a master porcelain maker to the Emperor of China proved equally useless. It was only from 1744 onwards, when Christoph Conrad Hunger was called to St. Petersburg, that attempts to produce porcelain met with success. Hunger, who had worked with Bottger at Meissen, and had later been employed in Vienna, Venice, Stockholm and again in Vienna, was made gilder and enamel painter. But he proved not to have a pleasing hand at porcelain manufacture and he was expelled from the country in 1748. It was his successor, Dmitri Vinogradov, a mining engineer who had studied metallurgy in Freiberg and a talented technician who documented his porcelain studies with precision whose working methods, who ensured the survival and further development of the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory. To this day his notes on production technology provide the basis of porcelain manufacture at what is now the Lomonosov factory.

If one looks at the products of this factory, so richly illustrated in this monograph, it is clear that, as in the European centres of manufacture, its production was oriented to the needs of the court. Ranging from the first snuffboxes to the multi-figured centerpieces for the tsars' table and the monumental vases of the 19th century, everything bears the imprint of the imperial patrons. The technical development of porcelain production led to the attainment of high standards. The catalogue shows that the great porcelain services embraced everything a princely table of the time could possibly demand, and the art of decorating these pieces was masterly. The porcelain from the imperial factory was not only magnificent, but showed from the beginning the traits of a typically Russian perception of beauty. Rich, decorative shapes were created, and were equally richly painted. The abundant variety of motifs in their density of color, whether floral or ornamental; the narrative verve of pictorial images; the exuberance of the sculptural elements - all these united to form an unmistakable whole.

The porcelain sculptures shows similar characteristics. Pieces intended as table decorations are monumental, aiming at ceremonial splendor, but in the small figures from the series "Peoples of Russia" (1780-1800) the narrative element, nourished by the rich treasure of Russian folk art, comes fully into its own. Equally, the series "Tradesmen and Artisans" of the same period, for all its connections with the European "cris-de-Paris" figures, could not be more Russian.

Towards the end of the 19th century artistic vitality was visibly waning, many more copies of European models were produced and there was no longer any innovative spirit at work. In this contradictory situation - perfection of the technical mastery of porcelain manufacture and decoration coupled with a decline in artistic vitality - some members of the recently founded artist group "World of Art" joined the porcelain factory. Their aim was to instill new artistic values and it was men from this group who created totally new decorations when the factory became state-owned in 1917. Now "Agitprop" porcelain was produced, with slogans and aphorisms in praise of the revolution and the new regime. Parallel to this, the traditional themes of eternal Russia -country life with its abundance of flowers, peasants, fishermen and the world of Russian mythology - came into their own. The Suprematist pieces were also produced at that time. All pieces dating from the first ten years after the revolution are characterised by vivid colors. It is as if a volcanic eruption had taken place, bringing forth incredibly vivacious new things out of an ossified past. The following decades brought a diminution of the impetus for creating new ceramic forms. The narrative element from the world of myth and fairy tale was given more scope; peopled landscapes and colorful flowers became more usual, until 1968 when there appeared the very fine-shelled tea cups with delicate, gold ornamented patterns which so enchanted us when we visited the Lomonosov factory in 1990. Recently these pieces have found their way to Western Europe and they reflect a new flowering and continuing perfection from within the ancient walls of the St. Petersburg factory.

"To serve native trade and native art"- this was how Empress Elizabeth, daughter of. Peter the Great, formulated the aims of Russia's first "Porzelin" factory, which she established in 1744. Dmitri Vinogradov also worked here for the well-being and the benefit of the fatherland and was the originator of Russian porcelain.

Two hundred fifty years have passed - 250 years of unique, remarkable, difficult and highly interesting history for the first Russian porcelain factory.

About 100 years after its foundation, the factory, which until then had belonged to the ruling house of Romanov, was proclaimed the Imperial Porcelain Factory (IFZ - Imperatorskii Farforovyi Zavod). After the October Revolution of 1917 it was nationalized and renamed the State Porcelain Works (GFZ Gossudarstvennyi FZ). In 1925, however, on the occasion of the 200th jubilee of the Russian Academy of Science, it was given the name of the academy's founder, Mikhail Lomonosov, a man well-versed in arts and science, and until recently it was called the Leningrad Lomonosov Porcelain Works (LFZ- Leningradski FZ imeni M.V. Lomonosova). Since 1993 it has been reorganized as the "Lomonosov Porcelain Factory", a private joint-stock company.

Russian porcelain owes its existence to notable Russian and foreign sculptors, painters, architects, scholars and artisans. During the Soviet era leading masters of fine and applied arts, expert technologists, workers and engineers continued the tradition. The best of Russian decorative porcelain from the Lomonosov factory today takes pride of place in the rich Petersburg collections, both in the Hermitage and the Russian Museum, as well as the Palace Museums of Pavlovsk, Petrodvorets and Tsarskoe Selo, the State Historical Museum in Moscow and the Ceramics Museum of Kuskovo, and thus are part of the rich fund of Russian and international art. There are many important foreign collectors who own such pieces. The Museum of the Petersburg Porcelain factory, established in 1844, contains some 20,000 exhibits.

For more than two and a half centuries the factory on the banks of the Neva has been in the forefront of high-class porcelain production. Its products are of immense cultural value to the country and set the yardstick for artistic form and quality of execution.

Russian Porcelain & Ceramics

The most collectors are familiar with the beautiful Lomonosov porcelain from Russia. But in Russia there is a great variety of factories producing all kinds of china and ceramics of the highest quality and design. Here are some of the most famous and popular among the Russian people:
"AKSINYA" PORCELAIN FACTORY

The enterprise, which was founded in 1972, produces faience articles with traditional Kossack regional painting; only ecologically pure materials are used here.
Donskoi faience is characterized by a vivid artistic manner, original forms, attractive brush painting of floral ornaments. The enterprise produces coffee- and tea-sets, dessert services, salad bowls and dishes, caskets, wall decorative dishes, fruit bowls, cheese cutting boards, statuettes, floor vases.
A special trend in contemporary production is painted faience, which is decorated with lace ornaments in openwork or with genre compositions in modelling
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Semikarakorsk faience articles are constantly exposed at domestic and international exhibitions and fairs. These articles are of stable buyers' demand.

"NOVGORODSKIY FARFOR" PORCELAIN FACTORY

The famous Russian manufacturers, Kuznetsov brothers, established branch enterprises in Novgorod Region as far back as the 19th century.Inimitable exquisity of shapes and paintings, along with rich colour schemes, brought Kuznetsovs porcelain world-wide fame.

In the 50-ies Bronnitsy enterprise «Vozrozhdeniye» restored forgotten art of Kuznetsovs porcelain. Carrying on traditions of old masters, artists of the enterprise create contemporary cobaltic porcelain. Ancient Novgorod ornaments and subjects of Russian folk-lore are taken as a basis for porcelain renovated decoration. The artists depict fairy-birds, grass and flowers, traditional Novgorod traceries.
Manufacture of statuettes is another very special trend in the creative activities of the enterprise. Funny figurines of Novgorod buffoons, executed by T. Gavrilova, one of the oldest artists at the enterprise, open the merry world of Novgorod fair; the artist also works in other trends - for example, her «Bird-cherry tree» tea-pot gives an idea of the marvelous beauty of the Russian nature. Unique tea- and coffee-set, «Hoar-frost», created by Yu. Andreyev, represents a combination of exquisite classic form and uncommon look at a wintry landscape. The artist's Zakharova paintings, executed in the technique of colour highlight, impress by the rich colourism, complicated ornamentation, splendor of traceries. Works executed by I. Kuznetsov, the chief artist of the enterprise, are distinguished by a great variety of conceptions; these articles are executed sometimes in classic forms, sometimes in the Art Nouveau shapes or in traditions of the Easter eggs.
Artists of the enterprise are in a permanent search of new trends when creating marvelous «blue fairy-tale» of Russia porcelain.