• Russian_Porcelain_Portrait_Cup_1

My best guess is that this cup was made by a Russian Private Factory somewhere between 1810 and 1830. It will take more time and research to be definitive. The subject is what really sells this as being a Russian piece. The portrait shows a young girl wearing the “Ukrainian Wreath” or Vinok. The Vinok was a traditional headdress made of flowers and ribbon. It was was worn by women and young girls of marrying age as part of a Ukrainian folk tradition predating the Christian era.  At the time this cup was made, the Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire.

This is an incredibly rare subject within an already rare category. I have looked through all my Russian books and online. There do not appear to be any other recorded examples of the Vinok portrayed in porcelain that I can find. I would say this cup falls in the exceptionally rare category. It is possibly from a set depicting ‘Peoples of Russia’, a popular theme in Russian porcelain. Somewhere there may still exist other pieces from this set.

This cup has a variation of the widely used split branch type handle. European and English factories also had versions of it so not an exclusively Russian thing. This one however has a unique variation which may assist in its identification. The ‘bump’ seen on the left side of this handle is most unusual. I found one other with the same bump in one of the Russian books. It was on a cylindrical cup made by the Popov Factory dated 1830. Not quite enough for me to pronounce this the same but promising. There have to be more examples.

Besides looking for the handle, I am looking for related pieces with the same grape and trellis pattern that wraps around the portrait. There must be other cups, saucers and related wares that are all connected by this pattern.

There are some incised marks on the bottom. Maybe they are numbers, maybe they are something else. Not factory marks anyway. In time they could come to have more meaning.

I love the gestural brushwork of the Vinok and the frills of the costume contrasted with the softly portrayed features of the girl. The way the girl’s shading was adjusted with strokes of yellow under the chin and eyebrows is very interesting. This might be a situation where one enamel painter prepared the portrait in the traditional way and then the design master came by and touched in here as there while painting the Vinok and frills to bring it all together. The treatment of the Vinok gives it a feeling of liveliness and movement as does the gestural detailing of the costume. This Vinok was certainly painted by an accomplished artist familiar with the traditions of oil painting.

The Vinok has apparently made a comeback in Ukrainian society today. Many images of contemporary Ukrainian women wearing the Vinok can be seen online.

The body of the cup appears to have been wheel thrown while the handle has been press moulded. Whenever I am teaching students to throw, I am always telling them they have to compress the interior bottom until they get a little nipple in the centre. This cup has that. The walls are thin and even but there is slight thickness variation in the foot. A light inside reveals a tiny sharp line around the foot left from the trimming.

This cup really belongs in a museum devoted to Ukrainian culture. The image makes it the rarest of cultural treasures. Maybe one day it will sit in a museum showcase. For now it is my pleasure to be its custodian.

9.3 cm in height. Diameter 10.5 cm.