A SOVIET PORCELAIN PLATE

The design for the above plate is almost certainly by Rudolf F. Vilde. Other plates designed by or attributed to Vilde also incorporate Imperial coats-of-arms or names from the original Imperial Porcelain Factory, masked by black paint in the design. In the present lot an Imperial coat-of-arms can be seen beneath the black handle of the sickle after '1917' on the border. All known versions of the plate Proletariat of the World Unite 4 1917-1921 have been painted on Imperial plates printed with the word Livadia (the Imperial yacht), which was then hidden beneath a pannier in the border. Long Live the IX Congress has the black circle of a sunflower on the border, masking an Imperial coat-of-arms (N. Lobanov-Rostovsky, Revolutionary Ceramics Soviet Porcelain 1917-1927, London, 1990, pp. 68-69).

A comparable plate of the same design is held in the collection of the British Museum, London. Further comparable plates were sold Christie's, London, 29 November 2006, lot 264 and Christie's, London, 8 June 2010, lot 266.