a rare russian porcelain plate from the cabinet service, imperial porcelain manufactory, period of paul i (1796-1801)

On the Cabinet Service, see N.B. von Wolf (ed. T.N. Nosovich), Imperatorskii farforovyi zavod, 1744-1904, St. Petersburg, 2003, pp.83-84 and 88-89; Tamara Kudriavtseva, Russian Imperial Porcelain, St. Petersburg, 2003, pp. 65-67; and, Pod tsarskim venzelem, St. Petersburg, 2007, pp. 86-91.

some scratches to gilding and painted decorationconsistent with age and use; minor scrapes to the glaze in the lower left corner of the cavetto
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The so-called Cabinet Service was the largest and and one of the most important of the grand services produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.  Comprising over 900 pieces, the service included the pieces necessary for serving dinner, dessert, and tea. Empress Catherine II commissioned it in 1793 as a presentation gift for her Chief Minister, Count Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko (1747-1799). It was paid for by the Cabinet, which is probably the explanation for its better-known name.  The service was produced during the period referred to as 'severe Classicism' in Russia. Each piece is decorated with bands of field flowers and centred with Italianate scenes. According to Boris N. Emme, a distinguished curator of the decorative arts at the State Russian Museum, the Empress continued a tradition inaugurated by Peter I. She used the service to test the knowledge of young aristocratic men who had recently completed a course of study: "...the depictions on the service of specific historical monuments provided themes for the directions of table conversation, during which the level of knowledge of the guests being tested was made clear." Should the young noblemen have been particularly stumped, they would find the locations of the Italian scenes identified on the bottom of each piece.