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Easter egg with coloured glazes
1894-1917
Imperial Porcelain Factory, St
Petersburg
Porcelain, flambé
high-firing-temperature coloured glazes
Height: 9 cm
The egg is covered with blotches of different coloured glazes - cherry-red,
violet and a bluish turquoise.
In the 1880s the Imperial Porcelain Factory began experiments with glazes
requiring high-firing temperatures. At first they sought to obtain glazes
of a single colour evenly covering the surface. The most striking and
highly-prized variety was a dark red glaze that became known in Europe
as sang de boeuf - "bull's blood". As well as the solid
background covering, the artists began to take enthusiastic advantage
of accidental runs and patches in the glaze. The use of different concentrations
of copper in the mix and also different firing conditions led to the creation
of porcelain covered with a variant of the red glaze, in which the basic
colour was set off by patches of white, grey, light blue or turquoise
with blotches. Such a glaze became known as flambé - "flaming
red" - by association with the shifting colours of fire.
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