Rare vase en porcelaine soviétique “La construction... Lot n° 351

Of baluster form, with polychrome decoration featuring in the foreground workers with picks and mallets on a background of a modern futuristic city, in a chromatic range of browns and mauves. The neck is decorated with the commemorative date "1917-1927" on one side and the inscription in Cyrillic "10 years" on the other side. Most probably after a design by Sergey Chekhonin (1878-1936). State Porcelain Factory, Leningrad, 1927. Green stamp of the Nicholas II period dated 1898. Hand-painted mark in black, Soviet period, dated 1927. H. 51 cm. Restorations Provenance Private collection, Germany. Related works -A vase commemorating the centenary of the Decembrist uprising (1825-1925), after a drawing by S.Chekhonin in 1924, painted by Z. V. Kobyletskaya, and quite similar to ours except for the scene depicted, is kept in the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg (Ill. 1). -A dish entitled "The Road to Socialism" after a drawing by S. Chekhonin and painted by Z.V. Kobyletskaya, also made on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the revolution, depicting a futuristic city stretching up to the sky, is kept in the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg (Fig. 2). History Serguey Chekhonin's influence was decisive in the production of Soviet porcelain and in the search for a new aesthetic to convey the propaganda ideology. As artistic director of the factory in Petrograd and then Leningrad from 1918 to 1928, Chekhonin was fully involved in the renewal of forms and styles, notably by creating a perfectly recognizable font. If it is possible to attribute the decoration of this vase to Sergey Chekhonin it is because it takes up all the codes which are dear to him, starting with the chromatic range used, but also the construction of a futuristic modern city seeming to extend endlessly in the sky and which takes up a decoration drawn by Chekhonin and painted by the artist Z.V. Kobyletskaïa on the plate "The road to socialism". Chekhonin was a brilliant graphic designer and illustrator who succeeded in combining the new aesthetic research of the avant-garde and Art Deco movement with the commemorative production of the revolutionary era. Our vase is a perfect example and a unique witness to the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917, of which only cups, plates and dishes were known until now. Literature A vase of similar shape is represented in "Soviet Porcelain - Articles by A. V. Lunacharsky, S. N. Troinitsky, V. V. Filatov and S. A. Trantseev", Moscow, 1927, p.7.