The Museum has purchased from a private collection a 1903 salad dish of the Raphael Service, a famous set made at St Petersburg’s Imperial Porcelain Manufactory during the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. It brings the pieces of the most impressive imperial porcelain set in our collection to a total of eight.

‘Just a couple of years ago, we hardly could even dream to have a whole set of pieces of the Raphael Service. The magnificent porcelain ensemble, which had been conceived and manufactured for Tsarskoe Selo, was not presented on our display at all until 2016. It is rarely auctioned. But several of its pieces emerged at different auctions in recent years and we could not resist the temptation. We were lucky to win for our collection a cup and saucer duo, a plate, and four caviar dishes, all made in different years. Now we have obtained one more piece of this porcelain masterpiece, from a private collection this time’, says Iraida K. Bott, Tsarskoe Selo deputy director for research and education.

All pieces of this gala set of Emperor Alexander III’s time typically show the Raphael Rooms-inspired ornamental and allegorical compositions with arabesques, leaf garlands and mythical characters in roundels and figural reserves.

From a paper label on the bottom reading ‘Russian Imperial Exhibit’, the salad dish could have been showcased at some early 1900s exhibition as an object from the Winter Palace.

The eight piece set in our collection will be used in exhibitions and on display at the Catherine Palace.