An oval porcelain plate decorated with swags, garlands and fruit and inscribed in German "He who does not work should not eat". - image-1

Lot 322 Dα

An oval porcelain plate decorated with swags, garlands and fruit and inscribed in German "He who does not work should not eat".

Auction 1047 - overview Cologne
02.05.2015, 15:00 - Soviet Porcelain
Estimate: 2.000 € - 3.000 €
Result: 44.640 € (incl. premium)
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An oval porcelain plate decorated with swags, garlands and fruit and inscribed in German "He who does not work should not eat".

With a Tsarist stamped mark overpainted with a diamond. Blue enamel hammer, sickle and cog mark, blue painter's monogram. B 46,4 cm.
Fired by IPM St. Petersburg, decorated by SPM, 1920s.

Although Russian porcelain inscribed in German is a relatively rare find on the market, a considerable number of such pieces were produced. They were probably intended for the new market established in Germany with the founding of the Weimar Republic. However, German was also the language of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and it can be expected that many Russian revolutionaries were familiar with their texts in the original language. Germany was also home to many famous revolutionaries, such as Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. The German inscription was a tribute to fraternity within the revolutionary movement, and also to the language that birthed revolutionary thought.