Imperial Porcelain Factory vase with flowering vines, St. Petersburg, 1909

Porcelain, enamel glazes

5 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (14.5 x 17 cm)

Inv. no. ab_7245

Like the vase with pigeons, 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.