Foreign Porcelain and Ceramics in the Collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums (4th Century B.C. to the Early 19th Century)

Fruit vase ‘Tree Graces’ with a removable plate. Aspect
Imperial Porcelain Manufactory de Sèvres, 1804–1807.
Modeller Antoine Denis Chaudet.
Biscuit porcelain; sculpting, ground colouring, gilding.
Marks: the name of the sculptor-modeller «chaudet» is scratched on the side of the base.
Came from the Palace Office in 1880.
Glass Cooler. Aspect
Imperial Porcelain Manufactory de Sèvres, 1804–1807.
Porcelain; underglaze painting, gilding, sculpting.
Came from the dinner-service storerooms of the Grand Kremlin Palace in 1881.
Sugar Bowl, Covered. Aspect
Imperial Porcelain Manufactory de Sèvres, 1804–1807.
Porcelain; underglaze painting, gilding.
Came from the dinner-service storerooms of the Grand Kremlin Palace in 1881.
Cup and Saucer
First quarter of the 19th c.
Porcelain; underglaze painting, gilding.
Came from the state office in 1979.

The virtual exhibition is based on the materials of large-scale research of the porcelain and ceramics collection of the Armoury Chamber presented in the scientific catalogue by the leading research scientist of the Moscow Kremlin Museums Irina Vitalievna Gorbatova “Foreign Porcelain and Ceramics in the Collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums (4th Century B.C. to the Early 19th Century)”.

The collection of porcelain and ceramics of the Moscow Kremlin Museums does not belong to the world-known collections and cannot compete with comparable large collections from other national and international museums. However, the exhibits it includes are of significant cultural interest and could become an honour to any large collection.

The collection consists of four hundred thirty-two art pieces and is divided into 9 sections according to geography. Each section differs from the others by the time of production, quantity, and quality of the objects it compiles.

The items produced in Germany and France form the most numerous group in the Kremlin collection. Fifteen objects of the collection were created in the fatherland of porcelain manufactory – China, three items come from the antique Greece. Four groups of monuments from Austria, England, Holland and Italy amount only to two objects in each group. One piece presents the porcelain manufactory of Denmark.

While studying the Kremlin collection of porcelain, it wasn't easy to line up objects according to their typology, chronology and topography. The number of publications devoted to the collection was minimal and it gained less attention compared to other collections that were larger and more valuable for national and foreign history and art.

The museum Inventories of different years that registered porcelain treasures of the Armoury Chamber indicate only the total quantity of the items in each group without their description or the name of the author. Among all objects in the collection, only the 16th-century Chinese hip flask of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich and the “Olympic” service presented to Emperor Alexander I by Napoleon Bonaparte were mentioned in the publications. In the 19th century, famous communicators of Kremlin treasures A.F. Weltman and S.P. Bartenev wrote about the Chinese hip flask. These days in their scientific works, L.M. Frolova and I.V. Gorbacheva paid respects to a unique masterpiece of the Empire style - the “Olympic Service”. These objects are only one-third of the whole collection. The major part of the porcelain in the Armoury Chamber has been neither exposed nor published.

Thanks to the research of I.V. Gorbatova in the scientific catalogue, devoted to the Kremlin collection of foreign porcelain and ceramics of the 4th-early 19th century, we have an opportunity to characterize the collection, uncover its peculiarities and draw attention to the key objects. “Even in the service sets of the Kremlin, each item is individual and worth mentioning”. Our exhibition is dedicated to these very items.