TEAPOT FROM THE "INTOURIST" TEA SERVICE

Creator(s): Imperial Porcelain Factory (Manufacturer) , Eva Zeisel (Designer)

Currently in storage

About this object

The generalized, cylindrical forms of the vessels Eva Zeisel created for this service represent one of the earliest, and most notable, examples of the rationalization of ceramic forms in the thirties. The contemporary form makes an excellent backdrop to the contrasting views of the city of St. Petersburg/Leningrad painted on opposite sides of each piece. Older, important monuments are rendered entirely in varicolored gilt while newer structures, or ones that had been put to some new Soviet purpose, are painted in more lifelike and livelier colors. On the tea pot, a new worker's club or administrative building (as yet unidentified) can be seen opposite a view of the Admiralty. The newer scenes are brisk landscapes, full of tiny figures moving about their business, while the monuments and buildings on the opposite sides are oddly isolated and empty. The contrast suggests that the while the city the Tsars had created was quite beautiful, it was nevertheless empty and the new, Soviet city is more alive and vibrant than it had ever been in the past.

Object name:

TEAPOT FROM THE "INTOURIST" TEA SERVICE

Made from:

Porcelain

Made in:

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Date made:

1933-1935

Size:

8.6 × 12.7 × 7.6 cm (3 3/8 × 5 × 3 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:

25.406.3-4

Class:

CERAMICS

Signature marks:

inscription Leningrad 1935 goda in Cyrillic cursive, gray overglaze on underside Trans: Leningrad of 1935 mark NKTP / zavod / im. / LOMONOSOVA / LENINGRAD / sort: 1 / 19 37 stamped in iron red overglaze on underside Trans: NKTP/ Lomonosov Factory / Leningrad / 1st sort / 1935. The text is framed within laurel leaves. This was a special anniversary mark celebrating twenty years of Soviet power. NKTP is the acronym of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry. signature V. Freze in Cyrillic cursive, in gray overglaze, underside Trans: Artist V. Freze mark? [green obscured LFZ factory mark?] in green, underside

Credit line:

Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973