The collection of the Porcelain Museum includes a small slightly elongated bowl that is traditionally held to be the earliest surviving product of the Imperial Porcelain Factory. The history of the earliest porcelain manufacture in Russia goes back to 1744, when the gifted Russian scientist Dmitry Vinogradov (1720-1758) embarked on a series of systematic experiments with the aim of obtaining porcelain. In 1747 he managed to produce the first successful examples. This bowl is among the test pieces that Vinogradov obtained during his prolonged researches. Impressed in the bottom of the bowl is the factory mark from the reign of Empress Elizabeth - a double-headed eagle and the number 15, indicating the particular recipe for the ceramic paste devised by Vinogradov. Early items of the Vinogradov period are great rarities in museum collections.