Decorated plate, Kuznetsov factory

Porcelain, hand-painted. Satisfactory collector's condition. Diameter 23 cm. Guarantee of authenticity.

"The Partnership for the Production of Porcelain, Faience and Majolica products by M. S. Kuznetsov" is one of the largest porcelain and faience productions of the Russian Empire of the late XIX — early XX centuries. It was founded in 1889 by Matvey Sidorovich Kuznetsov, a Russian industrialist and entrepreneur from the Kuznetsov family, and existed until 1917, when most of the enterprises were nationalized. The great-grandfather of M. S. Kuznetsov was Yakov Vasilyevich Kuznetsov, who founded a porcelain production in the Gzheli area in 1812. The son of Yakov Vasilyevich Terenty Yakovlevich Kuznetsov continued the dynasty of Russian industrialists. He, in turn, had three sons Sidor, Anisim and Emelyan. Sidor Terentyevich founded the Riga Porcelain and Faience Factory in 1841, which after his death in 1872 passed to his son Matvey Sidorovich. In 1887, M. S. Kuznetsov founded a faience factory in the village of Budy, Kharkiv county. In 1889, the "Partnership for the Production of Porcelain and Faience Products by M. S. Kuznetsov" appeared with a fixed capital of 3 million rubles, which eventually included 7 Russian factories for the production of faience and porcelain tableware. The board of the "Partnership" was located in Moscow at 8/2 Myasnitskaya Street. In 1891, Kuznetsov bought the Gardner porcelain factory in the village of Verbilki near Moscow, founded around 1766 by the russified English merchant Franz Yakovlevich Gardner. In 1892, a porcelain factory was founded in Slavyansk, Izyumsky District, which produced faience. In 1894, Kuznetsov bought a factory in the village of Pesochnaya, Yaroslavl province, and in 1898 he bought a factory in the village of Pesochnya, Kaluga province from the Maltsovs. By 1898, the Partnership had become the largest in Europe, and at the beginning of the XX century, about 2/3 of Russian porcelain was produced at the factories of the Partnership. In 1902, Kuznetsov was awarded the title of Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. Kuznetsovsky porcelain was sold not only within Russia, but also in Persia, Romania, Turkey, Afghanistan. In 1903, the main capital of the partnership was 3.9 million rubles, by 1913 it was increased to 5 million rubles, the balance was almost 19 million rubles.. The total number of workers at the enterprises has reached 12.5 thousand people. In 1918, after the October Revolution, all the enterprises of the "Partnership", except the Riga factory, were nationalized. The Kuznetsovs were forced to leave for Riga, as their further stay in Moscow was unsafe: in 1920, Nikolai Nikolaevich, the grandson of Matvey Sidorovich, was sentenced to 15 years by the Cheka. Georgy Matveyevich and his nephew Nikolai Alexandrovich also fell under the wave of repression. They were arrested as "Latvian spies" for correspondence with relatives, and together with their wives were exiled to Siberia. After the establishment of Soviet power in Latvia in 1940, the Kuznetsov company was nationalized there as well. At the end of 1940, G. G. Kruglov, a former Kuznetsov chemist, was appointed director of the factory. The enterprise became subordinate to the trust of the silicate Industrial Commissariat of Local Industry of the Latvian SSR. During the Great Patriotic War, during the German occupation, the Kuznetsovs left the Baltic States for the West.