2: Imperial Porcelain. Historicism

Items from the Raphael Service

1883-1903

Imperial Porcelain Factory

Porcelain, with polychrome overglaze painting and gilding over mastic

In 1883, on the orders of Emperor Alexander III, the Raphael Service was designed. It gets its name from the use in its decoration of ornamental and allegorical compositions found in the murals of the Raphael Loggias in the Vatican. Work on the service was directed by Leonard Schaufelberger (1834-1894), head of the painting workshop at the Imperial Porcelain Factory. In 1890 new variants for the decoration were devised by two of the factory's artists, S. Romanov and M. Matveyev. The service was created over a period of twenty years and comprised plates, salad bowls, trays, bowls, tea- and coffee-cups with saucers. Each year the new items in the service were presented to the Emperor at Christmas. In 1903 the work on the service was completed and it was sent to the tableware storerooms of the Tsarskoye Selo palace. From 1904 it was in use in the Anichkov Palace.