The museum display reflects the 250-year old history of St Petersburg porcelain.
The administrative building of the Lomonsov Porcelain Factory
In late 2003 the Museum of Porcelain, revived through the joint efforts of the State Hermitage and the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory public joint-stock company, was formally opened.
The collection of the museum of the Lomonosov Factory was given over to the administration of the State Hermitage in 2001. A new department of the Hermitage, located on the premises of the porcelain factory, was created for the scientific processing and preservation of the collection.
The collection originated at the same time as the first Russian porcelain factory, founded in St Petersburg in 1744. A hundred years later, on the orders of Emperor Nicholas I, a museum was opened at the Imperial Porcelain Factory. This event was preceded by exhibitions of the factory's exemplary pieces that took place in 1837-38. The museum's first display took the form of a “room for exemplary items" presenting pieces from the 18th and early 19th centuries that had been retained at the factory as standards or models for its artists. In order to form the collection many works were selected from the storerooms of the Winter Palace and other imperial residences.
The stocks of the new museum were also enlarged with articles that the Imperial Factory had displayed at national and international exhibitions. In the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894) a rule was introduced that the museum should receive the original version of each new product of the factory. A teaching collection was created under the auspices of the museum as a resource for the factory’s sculptors and artists that included porcelain made in both Russian and European factories and also a library that contained hundreds of books and prints. In the 20th century the museum formed a collection of the products of the Leningrad Porcelain Factory unequalled in the world for artistic standard and comprehensiveness.
Today the Museum of Porcelain has more than 35,000 items in its stocks. The collection includes both Russian and Western European porcelain, ceramics and glass, as well as rare publications and drawings. The new Hermitage display fully and fascinatingly reflects the history of St Petersburg porcelain that goes back over two and a half centuries.
