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Description

An Important and Monumental Imperial Pair of Neo-Russian Style Porcelain Vases
Imperial Porcelain Factory, St. Petersburg, Period of Nicholas II (1894-1917), designed by F. Jurgensen, and painted by N. Kirsanov after works by Ivan Endogurov and Nikolai Samokish, circa 1900-1901
25-3/4 x 11 x 9-1/2 inches (65.4 x 27.9 x 24.1 cm) (each)

PROVENANCE:
Presented to the Sovereign and Members of the Imperial Family, Easter 1901;
Nationalized January 23, (February 5) 1918, and subsequently sold abroad;
Private Collection, US;
Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above.

LITERATURE:
Khmelnitskaya, E.S., Вазы Императорского фарфорового завода. Собрание В. С. Голубева. М., 2021;
Kudriavtseva, T.V., Русский императорский фарфор. СПб., 2003;
Розанов, Н.М. Спилиоти, А.Н. Бенуа. Санкт-Петербург, 1906;
von Wolf, N.V, Императорский фарфоровый завод. 1744 – 1904/ Сост. Н.В. Вольф, С.А.


This extraordinary pair of monumental porcelain vases were produced at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg in 1900, designed by F. Yurgenson and painted by N. Kirsanov after compositions by Ivan Endogurov ("Ambush") and Nikolai Samokish ("Russian Princes in a Boat"). Executed in porcelain with overglaze polychrome painting and gilding, these vases represent a rare synthesis of the Neo-Russian style and the aesthetics of the early twentieth-century moderne. Each bears the chrome green cypher of Nicholas II beneath the imperial crown, dated 1900, and one is signed "N. Kirsanov, 1901."

Conceived as presentation works, the pair are recorded in the list of Highest Imperial Presentations to the Emperor and members of the August family for Easter 1901:
"Baluster-shaped vase with handles, with relief heraldic decoration and painting after the original by Endogurov Ambush." (Archive of the Russian State Historical Archive – RGIA. Fond 503. Op. 1 (562/2428). D. 21. L. 14 ob.). and were subsequently included in the factory's photographic archive of exemplary works. There is a photograph in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, recently discovered by Dr. Tina Khmelnitskaya, depicting the vase with Ambush. On the mount, at the lower right, is a circular embossed seal reading: "Library of the Imperial Factories". Below the photograph, inscriptions in violet ink read: "Height 14 7/8 vershoks"; and below, in the center: "1901." On the reverse, at center, is a mark drawn in ink showing the cipher "N II" beneath a crown. Other inscriptions in ink appear at the upper left: "Model: Jurgenson / Painting: Endogurov (‘Ambush') / Execution: N. Kirsanov."

Their iconography and decorative scheme align with the historical and stylistic research pioneered by F. G. Solntsev, whose revival of Old-Russian ornament provided a visual foundation for national identity in Imperial decorative art. The baluster-shaped forms, with their relief heraldic ornaments and gilded double-headed eagles framed in rhythmic foliate scrolls, recall motifs from Solntsev's Antiquities of the Russian State and demonstrate the factory's mastery in adapting historical prototypes to modern design. A related work of similar decoration on a different form of vase is depicted in Wolf, N. p. 303, illus no. 456.

The pictorial compositions, executed by the master decorator N. Kirsanov, reveal a painterly virtuosity unusual in porcelain. Endogurov's lyrical landscape "Ambush," once celebrated among the Peredvizhniki circle though now lost, and Samokish's dynamic watercolor "Russian Princes in a Boat," created for N. I. Kutepov's monumental Royal and Imperial Hunting in Russia (1896–1911), are translated onto porcelain with exceptional fidelity and chromatic sensitivity. Despite the distinct styles of the two painters—Endogurov's elegiac naturalism and Samokish's vigorous historical realism—Kirsanov achieved seamless stylistic unity, fusing their visions within the medium's reflective surface.

Within the context of Nicholas II's reign, these vases epitomize the Imperial Porcelain Factory's dual role as both artistic workshop and instrument of dynastic representation. They embody the national romanticism of late-Imperial decorative art, in which nostalgia for medieval Rus' merged with the technical sophistication of fin-de-siècle craftsmanship. As documented parallels in the State Hermitage and in the Golubev Collection attest, such works mark the culmination of the factory's Neo-Russian experiments. The present pair, of museum caliber, stand as an eloquent testament to the creative alliance of painter, designer, and craftsman at the dawn of Russia's last imperial decade.

Heritage Auctions is grateful to Dr. Tina Khmelnitskaya for her assistance with the research of this lot, and permission to quote from her unpublished expertise on this pair of vases.


Estimate: $180,000 - $220,000.

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