Agitation faience mug on the death of Lenin.

Agitation faience mug on the death of Lenin.
Pesochenskaya factory of GMZ. Soviet Union 1924 A volume of 250 ml. The weight is 193 grams.

Good condition.

Pesochenskaya faience factory (now JSC Kirovsky Stroyfarfor) was repurposed from a Molotov mining plant by the owner Sergey Ivanovich Maltsev in 1853. for Four decades, the factory produced a limited range of white glazed tableware and household products in the amount of 40-60 thousand pieces for up to 150 thousand rubles.

In 1899, the factory was leased, and in March 1911, it was acquired in full ownership by the Partnership of M. S. Kuznetsov, which determined the development of the Russian porcelain and faience industry in the late XIX and early XX centuries. In the first years of the XX century, the factory began and continued until nationalization in February 1919. reconstruction of production in the main and auxiliary shops, which turned it into a modern enterprise.

Production volumes increased significantly: by 1914, more than 3 million pieces of products worth up to 500 thousand rubles were produced.

In the price list of the factory in 1914, there were several hundred names, and a total of 2900 different styles and sizes of products were produced. Only multi-subject sets for 12 and 6 persons up to a dozen: table, tea, doll smooth and faceted, children's, etc.

The range of dishes expanded: jugs, bowls, salad bowls, butter dishes, compote bowls, fruit bowls, saucers, mustard dishes, breadcrumbs, round and elongated dishes, trays, cheese boards, candy holders, Cup holders, vessels, mugs, pallets, fruit, fish, and potato appliances. Given market conditions, Pesochenskaya factory produced diverse ceramic items for domestic use: photographic frames, bottles, candlesticks eight styles, ashtrays, flower beds, trays, cigarette, clocks, thermometers, boxes, appliances washing and dressing, soap dishes, vases and umbrellas, buckets, cups for pens, washing, ink, dials for clocks, the boxes (boxes of chocolates) and other products. 

The strong point of pesochensk faience, as well as all Kuznetsovsky porcelain and faience, was the abundant and varied decoration of products with the highest quality. As a result of the work of hundreds of master painters and gold drafters for decades, stable types of decoration of sand products were determined: white, red or gold layering, ribbons with and without gold, printing with a stamp on a potsherd, a spray shadow on 2-3 paints, a stencil, a roof with gold, a picturesque cutting.

Pictorial cutting consisted of decorating products with various stylized elements and compositions of plant and less often geometric ornaments. This ornament in ceramic parlance was called "agashka", and masters were called "agachadita", "Zhivopisny", "Agathae". Among the masters of the painting shop there were 27 men, the rest-women.

Hand painted cutting, except "agashki", consisted of the following types: prosolot, manners, polnutra, and differed from each other in white or colored background, gold ribbon on the edge of the products and other minor differences. In the first years of the XX century, the Pesochenskaya factory began to use decolmania, i.e. sticker on the products of picturesque sliding pictures, which allowed imitating on a significant scale the old artistic porcelain. 

During the Kuznetsov period, artistic faience was widely produced in Pesochna: medallions of 15 different styles with stucco, painting and decal, busts of three styles, chamber table sculptures of animals, Easter eggs, etc., which became a noticeable phenomenon of Russian artistic ceramics.

In the 1920s and 30s, the factory created many works of agitation faience-medallions, cups, glasses and vases with story paintings and agitation texts. Presumably, the authors were of the Brute A. M., I. M. Sheaves, M. A. Alexandrov. In limited volumes, but still continued to produce small plastics, in particular, a batch of chamber sculptures was released – busts of artists (Kachalov, Moskvin, Meyerhold) in a cartoon image of Kukryniksov.

The second half of the XX century at the Kirov plant stroyfarfora in the production of artistic and utilitarian faience and porcelain is marked by the work of an outstanding artist-ceramist Eugene Nikitin (1929-1992), who for forty-five years of work at the plant developed the form and sketches of hundreds of paintings. The plant has produced a number of these products for decades, for example, barrels for pickles and water, drinking sets, salad bowls. Many thousands of things E. S. Nikitin painted himself in the artistic author's performance. Repeatedly in the artistic decoration of products, especially those ordered for memorable dates, he used techniques developed in agitation porcelain - texts and dates, complex story compositions, rich color sound, etc.

In the 1990s, new samples of products developed by artists of the production and commercial firm "Porcelain"were introduced into mass production. These are various styles of vases for flowers, flower beds, decanters, pitchers, drinking sets, soup bowls, dishes, a set for aspic, as well as sculptures "Capercaillie" (table) and "Dogs Basset and riesenschnauzer" (table), candlesticks and Souvenirs-sculptures of small forms. Every year, many dozens of floor and table vases are painted with landscape and story compositions, which are in high demand in the art market of Russia.

Especially noteworthy is the production of the famous elegant breadcrumbs of four styles, made by hand by craftswomen-weavers, whose skill has been passed from generation to generation for more than a century. Traditionally produced in three sections-black, gold with cobalt, and gold with white-these products convincingly demonstrate both the deep traditions of artistry and high taste, and the continuity of craft skills in the artistic Kirov craft.

With the creation of a subsidiary company in October 1994 - LLC PKF " Porcelain "in Kirov, the production of products based on the samples of Kuznetsovsky faience of the beginning of the XX century, whose classical simplicity and clarity of forms have long made them the" Golden " Fund of domestic decorative and applied art. Today the company produces more than 100 types of products, most of which are decorated with drawings and compositions in the technique of hand painting. Limited use in the decor has a decal, as well as a stamp and stencil.

PCF "Farfor" has the status of an enterprise of folk art crafts, assigned to it by the decision of the art expert Council under the administration of the Kaluga region on July 13, 1997.. Due to changes in legal norms, this status was assigned to the Kirov company by the Ministry of industry, science and technology of the Russian Federation on 17.12.2001. At the same time, samples of 91 products produced by the company were registered in the tradition of Kuznetsov porcelain of recognized artistic merit.

Over a half-century of production at Kirovsky Zavod Stroyfarfor (until 1936 - Pesochenskaya faience factory) products of art and recycled porcelain and faience, a stable tradition has emerged and is constantly developing in the development of new forms based on the achievements of artistic domestic ceramics, and certain types of decoration of products have been developed and improved, which allows us to refer the production of art and household (dishware) porcelain by the company "Porcelain" CJSC "Kirovsky Stroyfarfor" to the folk art craft, which has life-giving roots and is dynamically developing in modern conditions. With the number of employees in 120 people, the company in 2002 reached the production level of 420 thousand pieces of products, or 15 million rubles.

Preserved in the collections of the Kirov historical and local history Museum and other museums, items of pesochensk porcelain (faience) of the XIX-XX centuries are interesting monuments of Russian artistic ceramics and as such constitute an independent section of the historical and cultural heritage of the Pesochensk (Kirov) region. At the same time, urgent are the artistic search not only for new forms, but also for new patterns of decor, increasing the variety of ornamental elements and compositions, creating small-scale products with thematic paintings. And in General, the adoption of the company "porcelain" as the successor of the traditions of Kuznetsovsky porcelain imposes on modern manufacturers the obligation to raise the" bar " of artistry and creatively use the achievements of artists-ceramists of the Soviet time, first of all, E. S. Nikitin.