RARE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL PORCELAIN GARDNER FIGURE UKRAINIAN MAN with PIPE
From the "PEOPLE OF ...

RARE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL PORCELAIN GARDNER FIGURE UKRAINIAN MAN with PIPE
From the "PEOPLE OF RUSSIA" series, GARDNER PORCELAIN FACTORY, MOSCOW, LATE 19th CENTURY.
Realistically modelled, wearing traditional attire man, including blue wide pants and a white shirt with red rim, with a grey hat and with a pipe in his left hand.
Standing in front of a tree stump, on a circular green base, red overglazed Gardner factory mark, impressed factory mark and numeral 168 under base.
This rare item came from the estate of a prominent New York collector of European heritage. After purchasing his first Gardner figurine more than 20 years ago, he developed an interest in Russian porcelain figures, and amassed a formidable collection over the next two decades, paying particular attention to quality of craftsmanship and authenticity.
SIZE: 25.5 cm (10 inches).
REFERENCE: For an identical figure see, Porcelain in Russian 18th-19th centuries, The Gardner Factory, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, 2003.
ESTIMATE PRICE: $7000 - $8000.
Few years ago Gardner's Porcelain Figure was sold on Live Auctioneer for $14.000 (30 bids !!) - please see the screenshot.
NO RESERVE auction. Start price is VERY LOW.
If an item is NOT SOLD, you can still give us a reasonable OFFER - please save the link of this page.
PAYMENT: Wire transfer, Check or Money Order payment are also available.
SHIPPING: Let us Handle Your Shipping. We are one of the few places that offer full service shipping. For your convenience we will ship your item for a reasonable price - shipping costs will be included in the invoice. Combined shipping is available - next item will be ONE DOLLAR for shipping. Shipping for this particular item in USA is $14.85.

HISTORY: Gardner Factory Russian Porcelain founded at Verbilki, near Moscow, by the Englishman Francis Gardner in 1766, and known for its hard paste porcelains, the Gardner factory served as important competition for the Imperial Porcelain Factory, spurring artists at both institutions to produce more complicated wares in terms of both form and decoration. One of two porcelain works in Russia during the 18th century, The factory was situated in the Gjelsk region where local clay, which proved suitable for porcelain, could be used. Gardner started with a German manager called Gattenberg, who later joined the Imperial Factory, and he employed a well-known German painter, Kestner. But these and other foreigners taught many Russian craftsmen, principally serfs, who gradually replaced them, as soon as they had mastered the various techniques; so that the number of foreigners employed in key positions steadily diminished in course of time. The factory was operated by the family for three generations until 1891, when it was taken over by Kusnetzoff. The Gardner Factory made lesser quality wares for export and higher quality pieces for the capital trade. In 1777 the Empress Catherine the Great commissioned the Gardner Factory to produce four dessert services for the receptions held in the Winter Palace. Each service included plates, round and long leaf-shaped dishes, baskets of various sizes for fruit, and a variety of ice cups. Among its other notable works were colored figurines of Russian subjects in unglazed biscuit porcelain. Gardner porcelain had a wide variety of marks in the 140 years of its existence. Different shapes of the Latin letter G, painted underglaze in blue or black, were most frequent in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Occasionally the mark is similar to the Meissen crossed swords with a star. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century the full name of the factory, impressed either in Cyrillic or Latin characters, becomes more frequent. In the second half of the nineteenth century the mark is usually the Moscow St George and Dragon crest, surrounded by a circle, bearing the full name of the factory, at first impressed, and later painted in green or red. In the last decades of the factory's existence the double-headed eagle was added to the design, and this elaborate mark continued after the Gardner firm had been absorbed by Kuznetsov.
RARE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL PORCELAIN GARDNER DUCK FIGURINE 1800's, Marked
Antique Imperial Russian painted biscuit porcelain figurine of a duck, Gardner Porcelain Factory, circa 1850-1870.
The gray ring-necked duck shown feeding, depicted on a naturalistic oval base with molded and painted grasses, the bird molded with detailed webbed feet.
The underside with the impressed name Gardner in Cyrillic capitals, with St. GEORGY similarly impressed, the number 2 or letter Z in the paste, and '105' in brown overglaze on the outer edge of the foot.
SIZE: 2 x 3 1/2" (5.1 x 8.9 cm).
REFERENCE: For an identical figure see, Porcelain in Russian 18th-19th centuries, The Gardner Factory, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, 2003.
ESTIMATE PRICE: $3000 - $4000.
Few years ago Gardner's Porcelain Figure was sold on Live Auctioneer for $14.000 (30 bids !!) - please see the screenshot.
NO RESERVE auction. Start price is VERY LOW.
If an item is NOT SOLD, you can still give us a reasonable OFFER - please save the link of this page.
PAYMENT: Credit Card payment, Wire transfer, Check or Money Order payment are also available.
SHIPPING: Let us Handle Your Shipping. We are one of the few places that offer full service shipping. For your convenience we will ship your item for a reasonable price - shipping costs will be included in the invoice. Combined shipping is available - next item will be ONE DOLLAR for shipping. Shipping for this particular item in USA is $14.85.

HISTORY: Gardner Factory Russian Porcelain founded at Verbilki, near Moscow, by the Englishman Francis Gardner in 1766, and known for its hard paste porcelains, the Gardner factory served as important competition for the Imperial Porcelain Factory, spurring artists at both institutions to produce more complicated wares in terms of both form and decoration. One of two porcelain works in Russia during the 18th century, The factory was situated in the Gjelsk region where local clay, which proved suitable for porcelain, could be used. Gardner started with a German manager called Gattenberg, who later joined the Imperial Factory, and he employed a well-known German painter, Kestner. But these and other foreigners taught many Russian craftsmen, principally serfs, who gradually replaced them, as soon as they had mastered the various techniques; so that the number of foreigners employed in key positions steadily diminished in course of time. The factory was operated by the family for three generations until 1891, when it was taken over by Kusnetzoff. The Gardner Factory made lesser quality wares for export and higher quality pieces for the capital trade. In 1777 the Empress Catherine the Great commissioned the Gardner Factory to produce four dessert services for the receptions held in the Winter Palace. Each service included plates, round and long leaf-shaped dishes, baskets of various sizes for fruit, and a variety of ice cups. Among its other notable works were colored figurines of Russian subjects in unglazed biscuit porcelain. Gardner porcelain had a wide variety of marks in the 140 years of its existence. Different shapes of the Latin letter G, painted underglaze in blue or black, were most frequent in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Occasionally the mark is similar to the Meissen crossed swords with a star. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century the full name of the factory, impressed either in Cyrillic or Latin characters, becomes more frequent. In the second half of the nineteenth century the mark is usually the Moscow St George and Dragon crest, surrounded by a circle, bearing the full name of the factory, at first impressed, and later painted in green or red. In the last decades of the factory's existence the double-headed eagle was added to the design, and this elaborate mark continued after the Gardner firm had been absorbed by Kuznetsov.