A RARE BISCUIT PORCELAIN BUST OF CATHERINE THE GREAT

This porcelain bust was first modelled by Jacques-Dominique Rachette in 1793 and was based on the marble sculpture of Catherine the Great by Fedot Shubin, dated 1783, which is now part of the collection of the Russian Museum. Being the factory’s chief model maker for almost half a century, August Spiess created a number of medallions and portraits depicting Russian emperors during the Historical period of the second half of the 19th century.

For a comparable porcelain bust from the Kuskovo Museum, see Exhibition catalogue, Die Tafel der Zaren und das Porzellan der Revolutionäre, Fragile, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, p. 32, no. 103. For another comparable model from the State Hermitage Museum, see E. Khmelnitskaya, August Spiess and Imperial Porcelain Factory, Moscow, 2012, p. 141, no. 128.