Was produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg from 1744. It was established by order of Empress Elizabeth whose father Peter the Great had seen Meissen porcelain at the Dresden court. <\/p>\n
The secret of hard-paste porcelain was a highly kept secret, but Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, a mining engineer, invented the formula for the Russian factory after studying at Freiberg in Saxony. He was much helped by the fact that the principal ingredient for hard-paste porcelain is kaolin which can be easily be found in Russia. <\/p>\n
The factory started with producing Chinese style porcelain and continued production for over 150 years under the Tsars who expected it to make a profit. Their wares consisted of large table services, symbolic Easter eggs, decorative urns and vases and figurines commissioned by the nobility.<\/p>\n
As could be expected, they mirrored the styles of the leading European factories such as Sevres and Meissen, using landscapes, mythological themes and flora and fauna as decorative schemes. <\/p>\n
They developed a distinctive Russian style under the reign of Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855), with artists being sent out to copy decorative patterns found in early churches and in the state treasury. This style remained popular throughout the 1800s.<\/p>\n
The factory had its ups and downs and the idea of closing down the \u2018useless and unprofitable\u2019 enterprise was suggested in 1881, but it was rescued by the support of the new Tsar Alexander III, and they went on to produce a new glaze formula in 1889.<\/p>\n
From 1894 to 1917 the factory got a new lease of life and became on of the leading porcelain factories in Europe during the Russian Art Nouveau period under the reign of Nicholas II, being renowned for producing the finest quality porcelain from the best ingredients using the most modern machinery.<\/p>\n
With the abolition of the monarchy after the Revolution the factory was renamed \u2018State Porcelain Factory\u2019 and during the early Soviet era produced propaganda wares. <\/p>\n
Cobalt net, their best known pattern started production in 1949 and became the trademark style of the factory. The factory was privatised in 1993 and became the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory. There was a legal battle with American investors when it became clear they simply wanted the factory\u2019s priceless museum and it passed back into Russian hands again in 2002 when Nikolai Tsvetkov, an oil magnate bought it for his wife. It continues in production. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Was produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg from 1744. It was established by order of Empress Elizabeth whose father Peter the Great had seen Meissen porcelain at the Dresden court. The secret of hard-paste porcelain was a highly kept secret, but Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, a mining engineer, invented the formula for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-makers-periods-styles-library"],"yoast_head":"\n