It was made in the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in Leningrad, Soviet Union. It has a old (blue) factory monogram on the bottom. It is in excellent condition. It is 10 inch. tall.
Once upon a time there was a Tzar. He heard that there was a bird that lived in a beautiful garden and ate golden apples there. There was just one of these birds in the whole world. It was named Firebird because it looked with an intense glare. Nobody could touch it - its plumage would burn everyone. The Tzar ordered his servant, Ivan, to catch Firebird. Ivan took the fastest horse and to arrive at the garden. He climbed over the wall to enter the garden. Ivan saw the Firebird. Its wings were gold and its eyes resembled a diamond. He knew that nobody could touch it, but he had very course mittens. He caught Firebird in a cage.
Then he delivered Firebird to the Tzar who was happy that nobody else in the whole world had this amazing bird, except him. Only Ivan wasn't happy because he knew that he had opened Pandora's box for the Tzar. Like all good stories this fairy tale has a happy ending.
The Imperial Porcelain Factory (now known as the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory) was founded by Empress Elizabeth in 1744 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. "To serve native trade and native art"- this was how Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, formulated the aims of Russia's first "Porcelain" factory. Lomonosov Porcelain Factory was the first porcelain manufacturer in Russia to develop and commercially implement the alabaster porcelain technology. This fine delicate porcelain is a more brilliant white than the usual kind, and thin almost to the point of being translucent.
Until 1917, most of the porcelain products were manufactured to meet the needs of the Tsar's Court. The factory manufactured mainly service set and adornments for the Tsar's palaces; only a small amount of the artistic porcelain was sold to the people, and it was very expensive and accessible only to the rich. Since 1920, the factory has participated in international exhibitions in London, Berlin, Paris and Helsinki, where it received high accolades. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937 the factory was awarded, its highest honor, the gold medal.
About 100 years after its foundation, the factory, which until then had belonged to the ruling house of Romanov, was proclaimed the Imperial Porcelain Factory (IFZ-Imperatorskii Farforovyi Zavod). After the October Revolution of 1917 it was nationalised and renamed the State Porcelain Works (GFZ Gos-sudarstvennyi FZ). In 1925, however, on the occasion of the 200th jubilee of the Russian Academy of Science, it was given the name of the academy's founder, Mikhail Lomonosov, a man well-versed in arts and science, and until recently it was called the Leningrad Lomonosov Porcelain Works (LFZ-Leningradski FZ imeni M.V. Lomonosova). Since 1993 it has been reorganized as the "Lomonosov Porcelain Factory", a private joint-stock company.
Lomonosov Porcelain Factory was the first porcelain manufacturer in Russia to develop and commercially implement the alabaster porcelain technology. This fine delicate porcelain is a more brilliant white than the usual kind, and thin almost to the point of being translucent.
From its first porcelain bear, hand-made by the inventor of Russian porcelain, Dmitry Vinogradov, Lomonosov has continued the tradition of creating life through porcelain. This quality, demanded by the Imperial Romanov Family, can still be found two and a half centuries later, when more than 300 different types of figurines are made at the factory for people throughout the world to enjoy. And every one of them is handmade and hand-painted. It is this special attention to detail of Lomonosov artists which infuses each figurine with life, soul, individuality.
Standards of excellence set by Lomonosov sculptors, such as B.Vorobyev, I.Riznich, P.Veselov received high international acclaim at World Exhibitions in Brussels, New York, London etc.
Russian porcelain owes its existence to notable Russian and foreign sculptors, painters, architects, scholars and artisans. During the Soviet era leading masters of fine and applied arts hotsell, expert technologists, workers and engineers continued the tradition. The best of Russian decorative porcelain from the Lomonosov factory today takes pride of place in the rich Petersburg collections, both in the Hermitage and the Russian Museum, as well as the Palace Museums of Pavlovsk, Petrodvorets and Tsarskoe Selo, the State Historical Museum in Moscow and the Ceramics Museum of Kuskovo, and thus are part of the rich fund of Russian and international art. There are many important foreign collectors who own such pieces. The Museum of the Petersburg Porcelain factory, established in 1844, contains some 20,000 exhibits.
For more than two and a half centuries the factory on the banks of the Neva has been in the forefront of high class porcelain production. Its products are of immense cultural value to the country and set the yardstick for artistic form and quality of execution.
Today the factory produces souvenirs and gifts, such as, tea and coffee sets. The items range from the animalistic genre and thematic sculpture, flowers and decorative vases of various sizes, porcelain decanters and pitchers. The products of the factory have been in continued demand at international exhibitions and fairs since their creation. Two hundred fifty years have passed - 250 years of unique, remarkable, difficult and highly interesting history for the first Russian porcelain factory.
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Product code: Carafe hotsell Fire-Bird Lomonosov porcelain Made in USSR 1950s (5453)