CERAMICS. 205 



sorts of faience in Russia. The first factory for the making of faience plates was built 

 ja this district on the land owned by Golovachov; it had been established in 1809 

 l^y the apothecary Brunner, the potter Kobotsky, a turner of (fardener's manufactory, 

 and by Eeiner. a compounder of the mass at the same factory; the production went 

 on for some years, when the works were sold to A. J, Auerbach of Lithuania. 

 Auerbach moved shortly the plant to another place in the same district, namely, 

 the village Kousnetsovo, where he developed its activity, which had a first rate 

 importance in the history of the manufacture of Russian faience. Auerbach was the 

 first to produce faience plates of a very high quality approaching that of the English 

 makes, and he sold it at comparatively low prices: the plates made by Auerbach served 

 as a model for other establishments, chiefly organized at the alreadj^ existing porcelain 

 factories. Persons interested in ceramics are aware that, although the making of 

 porcelain has its specific difficulties, the producing of faience is more difficult still, 

 especially with regard to the compounding of the mass used in the highest sorts, 

 for example, fine faience, ironstone and earthenware. The manufacture of faience 

 appears to be more easy and simple than that of porcelain, because the latter has 

 not so many steps in the process, which are noticeable in the production of 

 faience, under the name of which so many different sorts are collected, descending 

 to the cheapest, namely, the semi-earthen wares, in fact, the difficulty experienced 

 by the Russian factories, especially by those newly established, in imitating the 

 best sorts of English faience, for the production of which England is of old 

 lamous. in as much as the continent is celebrated for the production of hard porcelain, 

 illustrates the above statement. 



One of the first followers of Auerbach in the making of faience in Russia was 

 A. Sokolov, who founded in 1<S27 a small factory in Vyshni-Volochek. The production 

 of faience plates was, in 1832, introduced at the very ancient porcelain factory of 

 Cfardener in Moscow, but the work produced there never reached a high degree of 

 ([uality. Some other factories existed for a short time; for example, the factoiy of 

 Poskochin near Shliisselburg, in the government of St. Petersburg; that of Nemart in 

 Louga; later, that of Giinter near St. Petersburg; that of Lovstrem in Kogsholm. 

 government of Viborg, afterwards owned by E. N. Artemiev; and some factories in 

 the government of Volyn, justly renowned for their excellent Kaolin; some of these 

 manufactories produced really excellent wares, which however did not become widely 

 known. The general success of the large manufacture of faience in Russia having regard 

 to tlie quality of the wares produced, dates only from the beginning of the eighties. 

 The faience manufactory in the Korchevsk district of the government of Tver was 

 some time ago bought by tlie celebrated manufacturer M. S. Kousnetsov, who owns 

 it still. 



During the seventies the production of faience in Russia was reinforced by the 

 establishment in Finland of a new manufactory: it was that of Arabia, founded in 

 1873 in Helsingfors by Rorstrand, whose workshops were regarded as classical models 

 in Stockholm (Rorstrand's Aktiebolag, Stockholm). Later on. that manufactory went 

 over to a Finnish Co. (Arabia Porslinsfabrik Aktiebolag). The wares of this factory, 

 of a comparatively good quality and approaching the English makes more closely 

 than the Russian wares of that time, were widely spread over all the Empire, and 

 especially in Moscow, at the end of the seventies and the first lialf of the eighties. 



