Live Auction 17188Important Russian Art
A RARE SOVIET PORCELAIN CHESS SET 'THE REDS AND THE WHITES'
Lot 442

A RARE SOVIET PORCELAIN CHESS SET 'THE REDS AND THE WHITES'

BY THE STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY, LENINGRAD, 1933-1934

Closed25 November 2019

Price Realised

GBP 75,000

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A RARE SOVIET PORCELAIN CHESS SET 'THE REDS AND THE WHITES'
BY THE STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY, LENINGRAD, 1933-1934
After the design by Natalia Danko, on the White side, the King is designed as Death, the Queen as Fortuna with a cornucopia, the Bishops as White Army officers, the Knights as armoured horses surmounted with double-headed eagles, the Rooks as boats, and the Pawns as chained serfs; on the Red side, the King is designed as a blacksmith, the Queen as a peasant woman, the Bishops as soldiers of the Red Army, the Knights as horses with red stars, the Rooks as boats, and the Pawns as workers bearing sickles and sheaves of corn, all marked under bases with blue hammer, sickle and cog and dated '1933' or '1934'
The White King, 4 3/8 in. (10.9 cm.) high and smaller

Specialist note


Designed by Natalia Danko (1892-1942) around 1922, this set sought to promote Soviet sentiment, whilst continuing the Russian tradition of chess. The Communist red side, made up of workers and Red Army soldiers, plays against the Capitalist whites, whose appearances are permeated with motifs of death and struggle. The production of this highly propagandistic chess set continued into the 1930s.

For other examples see T.N. Nosovich, I.P. Popova, Gosudarstvennyi Farforovyi Zavod, 1904-1944 [State Porcelain Factory, 1904-1944], St Petersburg, 2005, pp. 350-351.