The relatively small size of the Kremlin collection of porcelain and ceramics can be easily explained – it is one of the latest in the Moscow Kremlin Museums and, unlike the artistic glass collection, it had not been regularly replenished until the late 19th century. The collection was spontaneously enriched with ceramic objects of various times and places of production. The interest in artistic porcelain in Russia arose significantly later than in other countries of Europe. In the time when Dutch and English merchants supplied the European court with precious items of Oriental work, Russia had almost no diplomatic or commercial intercourse with China and Japan and had no idea of such an expensive and highly sought material.
The court of Russian sovereigns, spoilt by precious ambassadorial gifts of European and Eastern goldsmiths, enamellers, weavers, and jewellers, remained aloof from the fragile porcelain treasures. In the treasury inventories of the 17th century, there were ceramic objects covered with enamel – majolica or faience very likely of Iranian provenance, since numerous fragments of these objects were found during archaeological works on the Kremlin territory. Over time, the content of the ceramic collection has changed greatly due to the dramatic historical events and fragility of the material. Unfortunately, none of those items have survived until our days.
The documents of the 17th century rarely mention porcelain objects, only a few. One exhibit among those has entered the museum exposition. It is a porcelain standing cup on a red coral stem by Nuremberg master Hieronymus Bang made of Chinese porcelain in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The cup was highly praised in the 19th-20th cc as an art piece of fine jewellery work that included rare natural material (coral). It cost much more than the silver used for it and the work of the jeweller counted all together. Although the cup is still exposed in the Armoury Chamber, it is not in the porcelain collection but stands among the West European silver in the showcase with objects made of rare natural materials such as ivory, coconut shell, jasper and rock crystal.
In Russia, porcelain gained attention under the reign of Peter I, who was eager to create domestic manufactory but did not succeed in it. The first in Russia “Nevskaya Portselinovaya Manufactura” appeared in the 1740-s under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.
Porcelain became widely used in the decoration of palaces in the new capital – Saint-Petersburg. Here principal porcelain treasures were delivered and here the famous collections were formed. In 1849, the Grand Kremlin Palace was erected in Moscow – the first stone imperial residence, for which the special “Kremlin” service was ordered in the Imperial Porcelain Factory. Here, in the service storeroom, were placed the items brought from St Petersburg upon the order of Emperor Nicholas I. The palace also kept precious French porcelain, presented to Emperor Alexander I by Napoleon Bonaparte to commemorate the Treaties of Tilzit - the “Olympic” service, “Egyptian” service, cabaret tea and coffee set, a large group of decorative plates produced by the best private manufactories of Paris, several objects of German porcelain manufactories of the first half of the 19th century.
In 1881, upon the order of Emperor Alexander III, fine exquisite pieces of porcelain and ceramics, scarcely used in everyday life but usually kept in the imperial storage houses, were transferred to the Armoury Chamber and became the base for the current collection of porcelain in the Kremlin Museums.
By the early 20th century, the Kremlin collection of porcelain and ceramics formed as a peculiar group of pieces of high artistic value but produced in different time and style. They appeared in the collection under various circumstances and remained preserved until then; some were delivered to the museum on the order of Emperor Alexander III from the dinner-service storerooms of the Grand Kremlin Palace in 1881.
In the years that followed the 1917 revolution and the 1930s after it, the collection acquired objects from numerous tsar residencies and rich mansions, the exhibits were actively shifted within different museums. The Armoury Chamber became the transitional place of storage for many sets of international level, including the order’s service, such as the “Berlin”. However, during this most severe period for Russian museums in national history, the Armoury Chamber did not enrich the collection but became deprived of many of its exhibits due to the replenishing of museum collections. It lost almost the whole “Egyptian” set, the principal part of surtout de table (table decoration) from the “Olympic” service that is now an honour to the collection of Ceramics Museum and the ”Kuskovo Mansion of the 18th c.” At that transition time, when the collection was forming, the “Berlin” service was placed in the Kremlin and its cutlery became part of the Armoury Chamber collection, while the rest items returned to their usual place – the State Hermitage.
The systematic shaping of the porcelain and ceramics collection started only in the 1960s when the museum began to replenish it regularly. Although the general structure of the museum group remained the same, the Moscow Kremlin Museums started to acquire interesting and rare objects that could enrich the collection with absent stylistic and historical features.
In the 1960s-1980s, a significant group of items from different state offices, including the diplomatic gifts presented to the soviet government, entered the collection of the Armoury Chamber. Among them are samples of antique ceramics of Cyprus and Greece of the 3d-4th cc B.C., which became the latest museum entries and the oldest in the collection. Besides, the soviet period brought porcelain items of Chinese origin. However, the first Chinese porcelain entered the collection long before that. A so-called hip flask of Tsarevich Ivan IV is thought to be the first preserved art piece that appeared in Russia in the 16th century.
The major part of the porcelain and ceramics collection of the Armoury Chamber has never been exposed or published. For this reason, the presented art pieces may draw the attention of experts, amateurs of the precious material, and devotees of craftsmen’s art.