A postcard with a special first-day cancellation and a stamp “Flowers and Fruit” from the series “Flowers in Works of Russian and Soviet Painting” was issued on August 16, 1979. Print run: 8,900,000 copies. Artists: I. Martynov, N. Cherkasov.
The stamp features a reproduction of the painting by the prominent Belarusian artist Ivan Fomich Khrutsky (1810–1855), “Flowers and Fruit” (1839, State Russian Museum).
This still life is perhaps Khrutsky’s best-known work. There is a possibility that it was for this very painting that the artist received the title of academician.
The faience jug is like Khrutsky’s signature: it appears in many of his still lifes. In Russia, inexpensive yet striking English faience was very popular, and some Russian factories copied it. A copy of a Minton jug with hounds was produced at Poskochin’s factory. But with one change: on the other side, instead of foxes, wolves were depicted. In the still life with a candle, only the side with the hounds is visible,
while in the composition “Flowers and Fruit” the jug is turned the other way, and there we see wolves!
Thus, it can be stated with complete certainty that the depicted jug was produced at the factory of Sergey Yakovlevich Poskochin in the village of Morye, Shlisselburg Governorate. The jug is inexpensive and utterly ordinary. But the flowers, fruit, and the painting’s ceremonial composition give it value and weight.
Poskochin’s factory made an enormous contribution to the history of domestic faience. Its production facilities were located in the village of Morye. Poskochin purchased an estate here, and with it the factory from Baron I. F. Frederiks, who had founded it himself 45 years earlier.
Until 1826, it produced glass and glassware, and later porcelain and faience. Its main distinction, however, was that the Poskochin factory’s faience used bodies of different colors. The range included white, colored black, a marble-like body, and “cream” tones. This made it possible to create unique vases, elegant jugs, and plates with no analogues. The items were made by hand; almost all production materials were domestic, and only the paints for decoration were imported from Denmark. Domestic raw materials helped keep prices moderate. The assortment of porcelain wares was very diverse and extensive. Luxurious vases, elegant jugs, rusks bowls, sumptuous platters and plates, souvenir clocks, tea and coffee sets, flacons, small-scale sculpture, and much more were produced here.
In 1829, the first exhibition of domestic manufactures was held in Russia, and products from Poskochin’s porcelain factory were delivered there. Experts rated the quality very highly, assigned the factory to the 1st rank, and noted that the products were distinguished by solidity and cleanliness of finish, had a beautiful form, and a moderate cost. The factory remained Poskochin’s brainchild until 1842, after which he sold it to the wife of Colonel S. A. Golenishcheva-Kutuzova.
In 1851, the factory was sold to Baron Korf, who owned it until 1887. Throughout this period, Korf leased the factory to various people who, with frequent interruptions, produced porcelain and faience that, in terms of technological and artistic quality, was inferior to Poskochin’s. In 1887, the factory was sold to the merchant F. Emelyanov, and from that time on only porcelain was produced there, bearing nothing in common with the faience of Poskochin’s factory.