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From Russia With Love

(PRWEB) December 1, 2005

A set of 11 plates made at The Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg in 1872 have been sold at Lawrences of Crewkerne, Somerset, United Kingdom for £165,000. Each 9 3/4in (24.5cm) diameter plate featured an individual military scene painted in enamels. The rims were lilac decorated with gilt laurel swags, flanking medallions containing black Imperial eagles. The plates were marked with a blue and green cipher and variously dated between 1872 and 1875.

The plates were in the Gatchina Palace in the mid 19th century and were acquired by the vendor’s family in the 1920s when many Russian art treasures were sold following the Revolution. The Gatchina Palace was turned into a museum and opened to the public in May 1918.

There was much pre-sale interest in the plates and they were bought eventually by a buyer with Russian interests from New York. The market for Russian items has risen sharply over recent years. A plate from the same service was offered for sale at Sotheby’s in New York on December 1, 1998 but failed to sell at an estimate of $ 6,000-8,000. On May 23, 2002 at Sotheby’s Olympia (London), a more desirable example marked for 1830, signed Shchetinin, sold for £19,000 against an estimate of £7,000-9,000.

Is this recent rise in the prices being paid for Russian artifacts a sign of a booming Russian economy or just a rise in the super rich Russians now becoming active in the art market? Why not visit http://www.drummondread.com and enter one of our Discussion Forums to air your views on this and many other topics. Drummondread.com is an exciting interactive website dedicated to antiques and collectables. Conceived as an alternative to ebay and other wide-ranging websites, Drummondread.com offers the general public, dealers, traders and collectors alike a world-wide on-line community which is open for business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Register free at http://www.drummondread.com and subscribe to one of our specialist Collector Rooms or the General Sale Room for just £5 per month and you can buy and sell for no commission.

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