Imperial Porcelain Factory vase with pigeons, St. Petersburg, 1911

Porcelain, enamel glazes

10 1/4 x 9 7/16 x 9 7/16 in. (24 x 26 x 26 cm)

Inv. no. ab_7244

This vase is decorated using a technique borrowed from the Royal Danish Copenhagen Porcelain Factory in the 1890s. This technique involved painting ground pigments directly on the biscuit, or unglazed, surface. After sealing the surface with a clear glaze, the item is fired at an extremely high temperature to fuse the glazes. Only a small range of colors can withstand the higher temperatures. The resulting muted images were considered very modern in the early twentieth century. This vase is reminiscent of the famous 1897 Jackdaws vase by Vilhelm Theodor Fischer (1857-1928) of the Danish Royal Porcelain Manufactory (now in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest).