Sold on thesaleroom.com: a Russian propaganda plate and the face of a naval captain
15 September 2020 From the thousands of lots that appear at auctions every week on thesaleroom.com, here we focus on two exceptional lots bought by online bidders this month.
State Porcelain Factory propaganda porcelain plate - £8000 at Bigwood Fine Art Auctions.
1. A Russian propaganda plate
When, following the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik government took control of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, large quantities of glazed but unpainted white hard-paste porcelain platters, plates, cups and saucers remained. These imperial blanks, some of them decades old, were typically marked with a monogram of the tsar to the base, but these could be covered up or took on a very different meaning when the plates were decorated with propagandist slogans and revolutionary images. It was known as agitfarfor (agitational) porcelain.
Sergei Chekhonin, a well-known graphic artist, illustrator, and ceramics painter in imperial Russia, was in charge of the production. Under his guidance a group of talented artists were assembled at the State Porcelain Factory in Petrograd who together combined slogans, calligraphy, Soviet imagery and some of the iconography of Russian folklore to create an art form that was as popular in the west as it was in the homes of Leningrad.
Many pieces celebrate anniversaries. The 10in (24cm) plate offered by Bigwood Fine Art Auctions in Stratford-upon-Avon on September 4 was prominently dated 1921, marking five years of the revolution. In addition to an image of a hammer, flowers and books is a slogan that translates as 'All Who Are Bold and Young of Heart Should Take Up Books'. The various printed and painted marks to the base include the green imperial cypher of Nicholas II dated 1902, an overglaze blue hammer and sickle factory mark dated 1921 plus the painter’s initials and the name of the artist in Cyrillic.
The reverse of the State Porcelain Factory propaganda porcelain plate.
The Cooper Hewitt museum has a plate with the same slogan by Rudolf Feodorovich Vilde, the draughtsman-designer who created dozens of designs for propaganda porcelain.
Bigwood’s plate was offered with various clippings assembled by the vendor on the topic of Revolutionary porcelain. Many would have loved to buy it at the estimate of just £40-60 but the hammer price of £8000, tendered via thesaleroom.com was much closer to the sort of sums pieces of this calibre bring at specialist sales.
2. The face of a naval captain
English School portrait of Captain Charles James Hope Johnstone - £6500 at Ramsay Cornish.
The painter of this small 8 x 6in (20 x 15cm) English oil on board portrait c.1825 is unknown but the subject is clearly identified. He is Captain Charles James Hope Johnstone (1800-35), the son of Vice-Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope. Charles was commissioned as a commander in 1823 and given his first command - HMS Chanticleer - in 1824. He was appointed Captain in 1826 whilst serving on the Mediterranean Station.
At Ramsay Cornish in Edinburgh on September 5 his portrait sold via thesaleroom.com at £6500 (estimate £300-500).