Porcelain began to be transported to Europe from China in the XIV century, and it was valued at its weight in gold, and sometimes much higher. Even fragments of cups at that time were worn as expensive jewelry. European alchemists have long searched for the secret of the production of “white gold”, but the first European porcelain manufactory appeared only in 1708 in Saxony, in the city of Meissen.
How the Imperial Porcelain Factory was founded
Porcelain production could not fail to interest Peter I, who strove to keep up with the West and dreamed of organizing porcelain manufactory in Russia. He even sent people with "spy errands" to Saxony. But the production secrets of the Meissen masters were not “taken aback” - they were guarded tightly. And Russian porcelain began to be produced only under Elizabeth.
On February 1, 1744, the chamberlain of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Baron Nikolai Korf, concluded an agreement with a certain Christopher Gunger, who undertook to "establish a factory in St. Petersburg to make Dutch dishes." And six months later, a plant for the production of porcelain was founded near St. Petersburg (so called porcelain in Europe at that time). But at the same time, Gunger could not establish production: he did not have any knowledge or skills.
The case was saved by the so-called "pupil" of Gunther - Dmitry Vinogradov. Before entering the factory, Vinogradov studied chemistry, metallurgy and mining in Europe for eight years - and it was he who managed to get the first successful samples of Russian porcelain in 1746, and then work out the production technology and put it on stream. In 1765, the manufactory was named the Imperial Porcelain Factory. After that, for one and a half centuries, the factory, which specialized in the production of the highest quality porcelain from the first day, worked mainly on "government orders." The sets, vases, painted dishes produced here could not be bought - only received as a gift from the emperor.
Pages of History: Propaganda Porcelain and Teeth for Soviet Power
In the post-revolutionary year of 1918, nationalized and renamed the "State Porcelain Factory", the enterprise was transferred to the People's Commissariat, and the ideological task was set before it: the development of products "revolutionary in content, perfect in form, impeccable in technical performance." The result was the famous propaganda porcelain, which became "part-time" also a new stage in the development of the Russian avant-garde.
Under the leadership of the artist Sergei Chekhonin, a whole galaxy of artists took part in the creation of agitation china, including Petrov-Vodkin, Kustodiev, Malevich, and Kandinsky.
In 1924, when the country was thinking about rebuilding the national economy, the enterprise was transferred under the control of Farforrest - and the main forces were cast on the production of technical porcelain. The plant, which was named after Lomonosov in 1925, produced more than 300 products: dentures, artificial eyes, insulators, boilers, laboratory glassware and so on.
Despite this, the enterprise remained the "supplier of the yard": at ceremonial receptions, the Kremlin tables were served with dishes made on special order by the LFZ masters. And in the 30s, the first art laboratory in the country was opened at the plant (it was directed by Malevich’s pupil, suprematist artist Nikolai Suetin), which created the style of “Soviet porcelain”. And in the “thaw” year of 1953, dentures were forgotten: the plant began to satisfy the “needs of the Soviet people” in bringing culture to life, specializing in the development of new technologies and the production of products of increased complexity. And in 1965, the famous bone china began to be produced here.
After the collapse of the USSR, the Lomonosov porcelain factory was privatized and for some time balanced on the verge of closure, but then gradually “came to its senses”. In 2005, the company regained its historical name and again became the "Imperial", took a clear benchmark for the production of "luxury" products, custom-made products and artistic porcelain.
