Imperial Porcelain Manufactory St. Petersburg
The Imperial Porcelain Manufactory St. Petersburg ( Russian Императорский Фарфоровый Завод , Imperatorski Farforowy Sawod , Imperial Porcelain Manufactory ) produces high-quality, handcrafted porcelain in the luxury segment in St. Petersburg , Russia . It was founded in 1744 by Dmitri Ivanovich Winogradow on the Neva and advanced to become one of the most important porcelain manufacturers in Europe during the Tsarist era .
Tsar times
In 1744 the Neva Porcelain Manufactory was commissioned by Tsarina Elisabeth with the aim of “serving domestic trade and local art” and “for the glory of Russia” and “to the delight of your Imperial Highness” as the first Russian and third European porcelain manufacturer besides Meissen and Vienna founded and renamed the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in 1765 . The manufactory produced porcelain almost exclusively for the ruling Romanovs and the tsarist court. After the October Revolution it was renamed and was given the name Lomonosov in 1925 , which it carried until 2005. On May 29, 2005 it was renamed "Imperial Porcelain Manufactory St. Petersburg" and resumed the production of selected Imperial porcelain in its program.
Since Peter the Great's visit to Saxony in 1718, during which the Tsar was confronted with European porcelain for the first time at the Saxon court , the Russians have tried to get the secret recipe for porcelain production. The mining engineer Dmitri Iwanowitsch Vinogradow, who studied physics in Marburg and chemistry and mineralogy in Freiberg , finally developed the recipe for Russian porcelain.
1744-1762
In the Vinogradov period or the Rococo period during the reign of Elisabeth Petrovna , the Russian porcelain from Vinogradow attained a similar quality to the Meissen porcelain , although the recipe, which only allowed Russian raw materials, was reminiscent of Chinese porcelain. At the beginning of the Vinogradov period, the motifs were still simple and monochrome, while towards the end fine miniatures were made of porcelain. In the early days, a limiting factor was also the small kiln, which only allowed small objects, so that tobacco boxes in particular enjoyed particular popularity. In 1756 Vinogradow constructed a larger furnace in which the first dinner service , “Her Majesty's Personal”, with over 400 pieces, was fired. The gold color for the porcelain was obtained from gold coins from the Tsar's treasure.
1762–1801: porcelain under Katharina II. And Paul I.
The "Golden Age" under Catherine the Great was a time of boom for fine Russian porcelain. In 1765 the manufacture was renamed Imperatorski Farforowy Sawod (IFS, Imperial Porcelain Manufactory) and a new system of marking with the ruler 's initial was introduced. In 1766 a school for the children of the masters was founded at the IFS, who completed an apprenticeship in ceramic craft based on the example of their fathers.
Since the beginning of the reign of Catherine the Great, the IFS has been obliged to produce the highest quality porcelain and to make a profit. The needs of the Tsar's court for porcelain were great and the continuous orders from the court led the IFS to the highest quality of the expensive porcelain. The tsars' white gold was born. The extraordinary works of this period include Orlov's toilet and breakfast service , which ushered in the turn from baroque to classicism , the "arabesque service" made for the 20th anniversary of the throne by AA Vyazemsky and JD Rachette with 973 pieces for 60 people and the cabinet Service , an album of archaeological evidence and various Roman monuments. From 1780–1800 approx. 60 models of the peoples of Russia are produced in the IFZ's figure workshop .
Under Paul I (1796–1801) the development of classicism in the porcelain sector continued. Increasingly, Hellenistic and Roman motifs based on the example of Viennese porcelain appear. The vases are getting bigger and more representative. They are composed of several parts. The sumptuous dinner for the public was replaced by a fine family lunch, the service became more artistically sophisticated but was only intended for 8 to 14 people. For example, at Christmas 1798, the head of the IFS, Prince NB Yusupov, presented a new arabesque service . The high quality of porcelain at the time of Paul I is expressed in small tête-à-têtes , miniature paintings of Paul's castles Gatchina and Pavlovsk were preferred by the tsar.
1801-1825
Porcelain masters from KPM, Berlin and artists from Sèvres were invited; the combustion chambers were restructured.
In 1806 an embargo was imposed that prohibited the import of porcelain into Russia . The competition between the numerous private porcelain manufacturers in Russia increased dramatically. The production of the IFS porcelain was divided into the department for imperial gifts, which made expensive porcelain for the court with little profit , and the department for ordinary porcelain, which produced cheaper porcelain with transfer decoration for the Russian nobility. The most important service of this period was the Russian or Guryev service (1816) with depictions of everyday Russian life and folk types under the leadership of SS Pimenow. More than 100 variants of golden decorations adorn the plate rims and thus form an encyclopedia of empire ornaments. Many parts from the reign of Alexander I are unmarked, the A is missing. Despite Alexander I's indifferent attitude towards pompous court life, the most important products in the history of the IFZ were created in this period. The Napoleon War (1812) also left military representations on porcelain.
1825-1894
Imported kaolin from Limoges has been used since the reign of Nicholas I (1825–1855) . Porcelain plates and porcelain pieces of high perfection were produced. A special method for gilding porcelain was developed, which was particularly durable and looked particularly brilliant alternately softly polished, matted, engraved and bourched. Gold engravings on a matt background underline the plasticity and convey the impression of something forged from gold.
Nicholas I himself had an influence on the management of the IFS. New projects for the production of porcelain pieces were presented to him and approved. As a soldier king, he preferred coats of arms . This is how the golden coat of arms service came about or he had a coat of arms for his wife Alexandra Fjodorovna - daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm III. and Luise - develop. The Tsarina's nickname was the White Rose. A rosary with white flowers adorns the coat of arms of the neo-Gothic Cottage Palace in Peterhof with the inscription: For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland. This service was included in the IFS program again in 2005 and is now used by Putin as a representation and state service. The most important services in the Russian- Byzantine style in the era of historicism include the Kremlin - and Konstantin service . The largest porcelain vase in the world was created with a height of 2.65 m. But porcelain didn't just play a role on the table. During the busy building work of Nicholas I, a lot of porcelain was also needed in the living area: furniture, frames, chandeliers, fireplace sets, clocks, icon walls , lush bouquets of flowers made of wafer-thin bisque porcelain by PU Ivanov.
A separate manufacturing museum was founded in 1844, in which products from domestic and foreign manufacturers were shown. Later a library with rare art books, botanical and zoological atlases, drawings, paintings and engravings was added. Under director Galjamin, 200 specialists now work with outstanding masters of figural, landscape and flower painting. Famous paintings from the Hermitage were copied onto porcelain. The productivity of this time was extraordinary, service from IFS was added as well as dishes from all the major manufacturers in Europe. Even if the old services were still in use, new, white ones with a gold rim and coat of arms were now being produced in large numbers for daily use .
Since the beginning of the period of Alexander II (1855–1881) only imported raw materials were used. A year before the abolition of slavery in Russia, the workers at the Manufactory were given freedom, but many of them continued to work in the IFS. The right to own houses and land in the manufactory's settlement remained in effect. The orders of the tsarist court decreased. Porcelain was mainly produced according to old templates. Since the beginning of the 1870s, the copying of famous paintings on porcelain has been discontinued, landscapes were only rarely depicted. Ornamental decoration gained the upper hand. The flower painting by KH and FI Krasovsky was once again significant. In the IFS, colored glazes were increasingly used for decoration with relief-like pâte-sur-pâte patterns. AK Spieß was the creator of most of the new putti and figures. Since Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna was very pleased with English Wedgwoodware , English decors were introduced. Russian folk motifs were also increasingly depicted on the porcelain objects, which probably culminated in 1862 in the Romanov service designed by Vivant Beaucé .
In 1881 the idea came up to close the "useless and unprofitable" company. Later it was planned to connect the manufactory to the Imperial Art Academy. With the accession of Alexander III. in the same year the policy changed. Alexander ordered the best conditions to be created from a technological and artistic point of view so that the IFZ should once again bear its name Kaiserlich with dignity and as a model for all private porcelain manufacturers. The architect LL Schaufelberger was commissioned to create the Raphael ceremony and dinner service for 50 people with a specially developed brand with rich Cyrillic ornamentation. The tsar, himself an artist, made his own suggestions.
In 1889 the new sang-de-boeuf recipe for glazes was developed. Under the influence of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna , decors in underglaze technology were introduced in Denmark with the help of specialists from the Royal Porcelain Factory from 1892 .
1894-1917
During the reign of Nicholas II at the beginning of the 20th century, IFS was one of the leading porcelain manufacturers in Europe. It was famous for its pristine quality. The porcelain mass was made from high quality raw materials and stored for 10 years before it was processed.
Since Alexander III. took Nouveau great influence on the porcelain design. Porcelain was produced with peculiarly curved shapes, adorned with stylized works, mermaids and other attributes of Art Nouveau. Vases had unique shapes. Underglaze painting enabled the artist to depict changing seasons and winter landscapes. The First World War changed the spectrum. In order to be independent from Germany , technical porcelain was now also produced. Only Easter eggs were still popular among the soldiers. The imperial eggs, which were produced in precisely defined numbers for the imperial family for the Orthodox festival, had now been reduced to small, simply painted war eggs.
Soviet period (1918–1993)
While the manufacture mainly produced for the Tsar's court during the Tsarist era , it was nationalized after the October Revolution in 1917 and renamed the State Porcelain Manufactory (GFZ - Gossudarstvennyi Farforovyi Zavod ). In the first years of the Soviet Union "propaganda porcelain" was produced. Avant-garde artists such as El Lissitzky and Kandinsky created hammer-and-sickle templates for porcelain plates, Nikolai Fjodorowitsch Lapschin and Jelena Danko also worked for the manufactory. From 1919 to 1942, Natalja Jakowlewna Danko was the director of the factory, which was relocated to western Siberia in 1941 .
For the anniversary of the Russian Academy of Arts in 1925, the name was changed to Leningrad Lomonossow Porcelain Manufactory (LFZ - Leningradski Farforowy Sawod imeni MW Lomonossowa ).
To this day (2017) the famous cobalt net service is hand-painted and based on the first service of Catherine II in 1949 .
Post-Soviet Russia (from 1993)
In 1993 IFS was privatized and began to export its largely unknown porcelain, particularly to the USA and Japan . In 1999 the American investor KKR joined the IFZ. When it became known that the KKR was apparently only interested in the priceless factory museum, a legal dispute broke out. The Russian government secured the precious collection under the auspices of the Hermitage. Not really interested in the manufacture, the investor sold the IFS in 2002 to Nikolai Zwetkow , President of Nikoil , who gave it to his wife on March 8th for International Women's Day .
In 2005 the Lomonossow factory was renamed "Imperial Porcelain Factory" and provided with the Russian state coat of arms (Imperial double-headed eagle) and the founding year 1744 as a brand. Porcelain from the Tsarist era, which is exhibited in the Hermitage, has been re-included in the manufactory's program.
literature
- Tamara Kudrjawzewa: The white gold of the tsars . Arnoldsche Art Publishers. 2000, ISBN 3-925369-67-8 .
- Elena M. Tarkhanova, A. Digit (Ed.): Vinogradov Readings in St. Petersburg. The 18th - 21st c. Porcelain: Manufactories. Collectors. Experts. The Materials of International Scholarship Conferences 2007–2009. Publishing House of the Polytechnical University, 2010, ISBN 978-5-7422-2742-7 .
Web links
- Imperial Porcelain Manufactory Website of the porcelain manufactory (Russian)
- Video about the porcelain manufacture (English) ( Memento from March 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Vinogradov and early history of Russian porcelain (English, Russian)
Individual evidence
- See also the list of porcelain manufacturers and manufacturers
- ↑ Tamara Kudryavtseva. The white gold of the tsars. Arnoldsche Art Publishers. 2000. ISBN 3-925369-67-8
- ↑ a b Press archive of the manufactory (Russian) ( Memento from July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ History of Imperial Porcelain from 1744 to 1917
- ↑ The history of the Lomonosov porcelain (English) ( Memento of 27 September 2007 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Porcelain of the Tsars, accessed June 18, 2007 ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Lomonosow porcelain website, accessed June 18, 2007 (English)
