plate
- Museum number
- 2006,0405.1
- Description
-
Porcelain plate, commemorating the founding of the Electric Lighting Company in St Petersburg in 1886; decorated in lithographic transfer (decal) with electric lights on a bridge with buildings behind, in red, blue, yellow ochre and black on a white ground. Factory marks on reverse.
- Production date
- 2006
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 25.40 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Part of a set of twelve plates commissioned by Integrated Energy Systems (IES) of Moscow in the manner of the revolutionary porcelain of the 1920s, and depicting the history of electrical energy in Russia.
During a visit to the British Museum in 2004, the Vice President of IES, Mikhail Matytsin, saw the case of Soviet propaganda porcelain displayed in the 20th-century gallery at the British Museum; seeing the revolutionary porcelain on display at the BM in an international context inspired him to revive the 1920s tradition. The porcelain of the 1920s was made after the 1917 Revolution to disseminate the slogans of the new republic. In adapting this idea IES wished to encapsulate the huge changes taking place in Russian energy now, in the same way as the Revolutionary plates transmitted the message about the transformations of the revolutionary period. In the face of frequent power cuts across Russia today, the sense of achievement of the Communist past is huge, and the launch of this set of plates on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of Lenin's GOELRO electrification plan (see 2006,0405.6) marks the continuation of the project by IES.
This plate commemorates the founding of the Electric Lighting Company in St Petersburg , the first commercial electrical utility in Russia, with its own power station on the quay of the Obvodnoi canal.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2006
- Acquisition notes
- Offered through the British Council in Moscow.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 2006,0405.1
