Lomonosov Porcelain Factory

(full name, M. V. Lo-monosov State Porcelain Factory; founded in Leningrad in 1744 as the Porcelain Factory; renamed the Imperial Porcelain Factory in 1765 and the State Porcelain Factory in 1917; current name adopted in 1925), the first porcelain factory in Russia and one of the oldest in Europe; the center of Soviet porcelain production.

Circa 1747, D. I. Vinogradov discovered the composition of hard-paste porcelain and launched the production of porcelain in Russia. The first factory craftsmen were serfs and students of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. By the end of the 18th century, the factory manufactured tea, coffee, and dinner services and vases and portrait busts in the style of early classicism. At the beginning of the 19th century the style changed to Empire; the themes selected for pictorial decorations were taken from the Patriotic War of 1812. In the 1830’s the manufacture of art objects entered a prolonged crisis that led to an overemphasis of stylistic features and an excessive use of gilt in decoration.

During the Soviet period the factory has been substantially enlarged and equipped with new facilities. In addition to traditional products, the factory began manufacturing industrial porcelain and decorative articles (products of what is called agitational art) designed by the artists S. V. Chekhonin and A. V. Shchekati-khina-Pototskaia and the sculptors V. V. Kuznetsov and N. Ia. Dan’ko. In the 1920’s and 1930’s the factory specialized in manufacturing individual objects, rather than copies. During the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s, new models of genre sculpture, dinner and tea services, decorative vases, and household tableware were created. Important contributions to the development of Soviet decorative and applied arts were made by the factory’s finest artists, including V. M. Gorodetskii, E. M. Krimmer, A. A. Leporskaia, V. L. Semenova, and A. A. Iatskevitch.

The factory has technological and art laboratories, a museum of decorative porcelain, and a specialized library. The factory was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1944.