After the design by Bossilka Radonitch, circular, the centre painted with a gilt ciselé cornucopia of flowers, each flower inscribed in Russian with names of Soviet government bodies, the largest flower shaped as a red star and inscribed 'Sovnarkom' [Council of People's Commissars], all within a grey border inscribed 'Russ.[ian] Soc.[ialist] Fed.[erative] Sov.[iet] Rep.[ublic]', marked under base with blue hammer, sickle and cog, also signed with Cyrillic initial 'B.' and dated '1921'
13⁷⁄₈ in. (35.2 cm.) diameter

Acquired by Ella Henrietta Preston (1889-1989), wife of Thomas Preston (1886-1976), the British Consul in Leningrad between 1922 and 1926.
By descent to the present owner.

N. Lobanov-Rostovsky, Revolutionary Ceramics Soviet Porcelain 1917-1927, London, 1990, p. 57, no. 34 (illustrated).

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Lot Essay

Bossilka Radonitch (1883-1972) worked at the State Porcelain Factory between 1920-1924 under the guidance of Sergei Chekhonin, whose stylistic influence is apparent in the present lot. The State Porcelain Factory's archives indicate that Radonitch produced only one oval and one circular platter called 'Sovnarkom'. The oval platter, also dated 1921, is part of the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, see Exhibition catalogue, The Voice of the Time Soviet Porcelain: Art and Propaganda, St Petersburg, 2017, p. 16.

Sir Thomas Preston was the British Consul in Ekaterinburg, Vladivostock and Leningrad between 1918 and 1926. He served in Ekaterinburg at the time of the murder of the Russian Imperial family in 1918. He remained in Siberia until October 1920, and returned to Leningrad as a British official agent in 1922.