214 MANUFACTURES OF RUSSIA. 



the Imperial manufactory, at the head of all other Russian porcelain works, is 

 known in America, Miiere it has sent during- the last few years its productions 

 decorated in the Russian style. The Imperial porcelain manufactory, established in 

 St. Petersburg in the middle of the last century, produces goods for the current ne- 

 cessities of the Imperial Court of a common kind, as well as for decoration, such as 

 table and tea services, and a small number of ornamental and artistic produc- 

 tions. 



From an artistic, as well as from a technical point of view this manufactory 

 is at the present time a model, in spite of its very limited output, which places it 

 in an unfavourable position. This is owing to its reorganization during its last period 

 of management, which began in 1880. The high position in an artistic sense which 

 it has long occupied, is well known to the amateurs of the ceramic art and to juries 

 of the international exhibitions. (See, for instance. Exhibition of the Works of In- 

 dustry of all Nations, 1851, London, Reports by the Juries, p. 542, Official descriptive 

 Catalogue 318, p. 1376; Relazione sulle Industrie ceramica e vetraria all' esposizione 

 universale de Vienna nell' anno 1873 del Giurato Richard cav. Giulio, Milano 1874. 

 pag. 65; Oesterreichischer Bericht iiber die Weltausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 

 1867: IV, Glas- und Thonwaarenfabri cation, Wien 1868, p. 217—218). 



In their reports the foreign juries mention the attention and high personal 

 interest which the Emperors, particularly Alexander II, took in the success and im- 

 provement of this branch of art in their countries *. 



Of the artistic articles produced of late in the Imperial porcelain manufactory 

 a classic service called the Raphael service, the painting of which has been taken 

 from the laggio of the Vatican in all its details, attracts at the present time parti- 

 cular attention from the large number of the finest, most excellently painted vases. 



Among its painters the manufactory numbers master artists, such as Krasov- 

 sky, T. Tarachkov, and the sculptor A. K. Spiess, the manager of the artistic and 

 technical division, L. L. Schaufelberger. Stencil work is totally excluded here, the 

 more so as the productions of the manufactory do not come into the trade. Among 

 the methods of technical decoration the coloured glaze produced at a high tempera- 

 ture, which has been lately worked out here by the chemists of the manufactory, 

 the technical engineers K. J. Klever and J. K. Byk, is particularly remarkable. 

 This glaze adheres to hard porcelain without any modification in its composition and 

 gives an effect analogous to that on the present porcelain nouvelle of Sevres, or in 

 Berlin Segger-Porcellan. Among the strains from the great heat there are most 

 remarkably clean red colours, well known to be the most difficult, and which have 

 been rediscovered only lately. 



* ...Ma chi veramente anima e sostiene col sue valido patrocinio questa e le altre 

 manifatture Imperiali e S. M. lo Czar che, per mostrare quanto degna stima faccia dell- 

 industria e quanto ardentemente desideri di vederlo estendersi e progredire ne'suoi Stati, 

 onora frequentemente della sua presenza le suaccennate manifatture, studia ed osserva cgiii 

 CO a, entra nei piii minuti particolari e vuol rendersi conto di tutto. II diploma donare 

 conferito alle fabbriche Imperiali fu specialmente dedicato alio Czar come pegno di rico- 

 noscenza che I'industria da lui incoraggiata e protetta offre al degno successore di Pietro 

 il Grando... (Richard cav. Giullo, 1. c, p. 67). 



