Officer and Soldiers of the Semenovsky Life-Guard Regiment: a military porcelain plate, Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St Petersburg, period of Nicholas I, 1829

As the second oldest regiment of the Imperial Russian army, the Semenovsky Regiment held especial prestige on par with the renowned Preobrazhensky Regiment. Its name derived from Semyonovskoye - a small village now subsumed by modern-day Moscow - and it was created in 1691 by Peter the Great as part of the 1st Brigade (nicknamed 'Peter's Brigade'). Soldiers were selected for this elite regiment from Peter's 'Toy Army', a regiment comprising Peter's friends, noblemen's son and members of the court. Both the Semenovsky and Preobrazhensky Regiments earnt their reputation during Russia's battles with the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sweden. Following from the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment also became associated with Enlightenment thinking which sought to transform Russia.

The Military Service

In 1827, shortly after the beginning of his reign, Emperor Nicholas I commissioned the first series of 120 plates as part of a military service, possibly inspired by an earlier series of similar wares produced at KPM in Berlin. The Imperial Porcelain Factory, who were charged with the commission, executed two versions of each plate, one intended for the Emperor, and a second for the Tsarevich. Nicholas I later sent more than 200 plates to his father-in-law, King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, who incorporated them in the decoration of his new pavilion at Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. Military plates remained popular; production continued uninterrupted throughout the 19th century, the last additions made during the reign of Nicholas II, with designs being changed when uniforms were altered.

Their subjects came from a variety of sources, including Sobranie mundirov rossiiskoi imperatorskoi armii (A Collection of Uniforms of the Imperial Russian Army), published in 1830 with lithographs by military draftsmen P. Alexandrov and Lev Belousov. Later on, the factory painters also turned to the series of watercolours by Piratsky depicting Changes in the Clothing and Arms of the Russian Imperial Army during the Reign of Alexander Nicholayevich. Piratsky’s series was a supplement to the famous work by the military historian Alexander Viskovatov Historical Descriptions of the Clothing and Arms of the Russian Army. Many of the original watercolours are held in the Russian Museum in St Petersburg and the series was continued by Pyotr Balashov (1853-1888) after Piratsky’s death. Key Russian historical painters Viktor Vikentevich Mazurovsky (1859-1923) and Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne (1826-1901) also provided much of the imagery which was used as a springboard for the finest painters-decorators from the period working at the Imperial Porcelain Factory. Sometimes, the Imperial Porcelain painters used the watercolours to inspire vignettes and poses on the plates, rather than copying them directly, creating interesting comparisons between the source material and final product.