Lot 1
Lot 1
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A RARE SOVIET PROPAGANDA PORCELAIN PLATTER 'SOVNARKOM'

BY THE STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY, PETROGRAD, 1921

Price Realised GBP 150,000
Estimate
GBP 20,000 - GBP 30,000
Estimates do not reflect the final hammer price and do not include buyer's premium, any applicable taxes or artist's resale right. Please see the Conditions of Sale for full details.
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A RARE SOVIET PROPAGANDA PORCELAIN PLATTER 'SOVNARKOM'

BY THE STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY, PETROGRAD, 1921

Price Realised GBP 150,000
Register
Price Realised GBP 150,000
Register
Details
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'
1378 in. (35.2 cm.) diameter
Provenance
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.
Literature
N. Lobanov-Rostovsky, Revolutionary Ceramics Soviet Porcelain 1917-1927, London, 1990, p. 57, no. 34 (illustrated).
Special notice
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
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Alexis de Tiesenhausen
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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.
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Condition report

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