In the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, there are quite a number of rarities including one monument that occupies the first place in the history of porcelain in Russia. It is a so-called hip flask (suleya) of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich. The flask is considered the first porcelain item registered on the territory of Russia.
The object's title is connected to the Russian tradition of naming the objects depending on their functional use: a small fine vase of classical form from the Ming dynasty China was defined as a suleya (flask) – one of the most spread types of tableware in Old Rus. It was even provided with more practical details (from the Russian point of view) – a coupling was put on the neck, its upper part and the lid were set in silver and fastened by a hinge, thus making a flap lid, a chain was added.
The special status of the vase relates to the carved inscription on the silver setting of the neck: СУЛЕЯ ЦАРЕВИЧА КНЯЗЯ ИВАНА ИВАНОВИЧА (flask of Tsarevich Prince Ivan Ivanovich) that proves its owner was the elder son and heir of Ivan IV the Terrible, who had tragically died at the hand of his father.
For the first time, the inventories of the Armoury Chamber mention the flask in 1808. There is no precise information about the time it appeared in the tsar's treasury. The Register of Tsars’ Regalia, Gold and Silver Tableware that Captain Obolduev compiled on the order of Prince G.I. Potyomkin in 1776-1778, mentions a“Venetian” hip flask. It could be called so based on the earlier sources that used the term as a synonym to “European” thus referring to the origin of the vase, e.g. it might have come from North Italy among commercial goods.
Though we have quite a limited knowledge of the Armoury Chamber collection in the early 17th century, the period of Polish-Lithuanian intervention, the researchers do not doubt the time of flask production and its owner – Tsarevich Ioan Ivanovich. Stylistic and technological peculiarities of the vase allow for defining it as an art piece of Chinese ceramics of the Ming dynasty epoch, the latest - the first half of the 16th century. The inscription on the silver decoration of the neck belongs to the same period, epigraphists say. The researchers also think that the hip flask could have been presented to the tsar by a prominent boyar or merchant, bought from foreign merchants as homeware or bestowed as a diplomatic gift.
Another object came to the Armoury Chamber sometime later after the flask. It was a jug ‘voronok’ (typical for Russia, with a lid on a hinge) also mentioned in the Inventory of 1808. Other items of Chinese production appeared in the museum much later – in the Soviet period.
Hip flask (vase)
The body of the vase has an underglaze cobalt painting. The motifs of Islamic origin prevail in the floral-vegetal ornament – these are flowers of lotus and pomegranate, palmette leaves and grape-vines. The hemispheric faceted lid with an orb on top is decorated with plum flowers (the meiyu 梅雨). The silver gilt setting on the neck has an inscription:СУЛЕІА. ЦАРЕВИЧАIКНIА ИВАНА. ИВАНОВИЧА.(Flask of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich). There is an image of a unicorn on the internal side of the lid.
The porcelain items of the Ming dynasty feature a monochrome white-blue painting with motifs of the Eastern Muslim countries. The slightly crooked body of the vase, bend of the thin neck, and the unstable base tell about a certain technological decay of the Ming porcelain production in the first half of the 16th century.
The significance of Chinese porcelain for the development of European culture can hardly be overestimated. Since Marco Polo introduced this unique material to the Europeans in the 13th century, the interest in it and the search for the secrets of its production had been lasting for the next few centuries. Porcelain objects were collected and kept as special treasures and points of pride. The hip flask of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich has a particular meaning in the history of porcelain in Russia. It is not accidental that two copies of the flask manufactured in the 1870s at A.G. Popov’s factory are now a part of the collection of the two largest national museums. One replica of the flask is kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow, and another one – in the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.
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Jug
The jug, mentioned in the Inventory of 1808 was exposed in the museum ‘The House of the Romanov Boyars’ that opened in 1858 on the base of the Armoury Chamber collection. In 1933, the art object returned to the Kremlin.
The spherical body of the porcelain jug with a tin lid in the form of a shell is decorated with underglaze blue cobalt painting.
The stylistic peculiarities of the painting and the quality of the porcelain let us attribute the item to the period of the Qing dynasty in China when porcelain was in decay. The objects were produced of rough material, the painting looked quite schematic. In the 17th century, when the missionaries (often from Holland) came to China, there appeared items with a strong influence of Dutch ceramics that, in turn, were also strongly influenced by Chinese porcelain. The author of the catalogue thinks that the jug painting copies the painting of Dutch ceramics in the chinoiserie style
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Tankard
The tankard in the form of a long-cut cone is decorated with cobalt painting depicting a man with a lash. The image with typical facial features is most likely painted after the motif of popular in China legends and fairy tales about the werewolf-fox (huli jing).
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Phials
A small but very beautiful group of phials-snuffboxes from the Kremlin collection of Chinese porcelain is an interesting example of a typological peculiarity of an object conditioned by the national traditions of China. “Similar accessory in Europe was in the form of a box./…/ it was a box, not a phial. Traditional Chinese costume had no pockets – all the things needed were carried in the folds of a wide sleeve. A small oval phial with a short narrow neck could be easily hung on a cord, it did not occupy much space and the neck served as a natural dispenser for those who used to sniff tobacco. A necessary portion was taken out with the help of a tiny bone spoon (in Europe and Russia, the snuff was taken with three fingertips). In fact, the function of many of those snuffboxes was hardly innocent: these elegant little things were the main attribute of opium smokers too.”
The author of the catalogue thinks the painting on the phials was made after two works of Chinese literature which remain the most popular to this day: historical and adventure novels“Romance of the Three Kingdoms” by Luo Guanzhong and “Water Margin” by Shi Nai'an of the 15th century.
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Vases
The body of the miniature vases is made in the form of a crook-neck pumpkin. It is covered with a light-beige glaze with a craze (a net of small wrinkles) that imitates the coating of faience. The underglaze painting of vases with blue and white enamel depicts birds that are sitting on a branch of a blossoming peony.
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Incense burner
A bell-shaped incense burner for incense sticks with two small decorative handles was written as a candlestick in the book of entries of the Armoury Chamber in 1981. The form of the object proves the fact that it was not meant for the lighting. Similar incense burners were used for incensing before the desks of ancestors and deities, during prayers, and for room aromatization.
The cobalt painting with copper on the body of the art piece depicts a landscape with a mounting and a hut under the trees. The lower part of the body, under the base, has a hieroglyphic inscription. The neck of the incense burner is decorated with cruciate motifs, the base has an ornament imitating false doors