A plate inscribed "he who does not work shall not eat" - image-1 A plate inscribed "he who does not work shall not eat" - image-2

Lot 363 D α

A plate inscribed "he who does not work shall not eat"

Auction 1065 - overview Berlin
30.04.2016, 14:30 - Russian Porcelain
Estimate: 1.500 € - 2.000 €
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A plate inscribed "he who does not work shall not eat"

Scalloped plate decorated with a portrait of Lenin, a red star, hammer and sickle over a halfed double-headed eagle, the monogram RSFSR, a stamp card and a ration coupon dated 1921. Blue stamped Kusnezov mark, blue enamel hammer, sickle and cog mark dated 1921, black N 123/5, inscribed with designer's name, gold painter's mark. Wear to the gilt edging. D 21.8 cm.
M.S. Kusnezov, presumably Ukraine, Charkov, after a design by Mikhail Mikhailovich Adamovich 1921.

This famous plate design by Adamovich adapts a quotation from the bible. The typography was designed by Chekhonin. The portrait of Lenin is based on a sketch by Natan Altman. The composition is based on the baroque quodlibet motif but uses contemporary propaganda material.
This piece appears to be a very early limited edition version of this plate on unpainted porcelain from the Tsarist era, the mark of which has not been overpainted.

Literature

An identically decorated plate in cat. News from a Radiant Future. Soviet Porcelain from the Collection of Craig H. and Kay A. Tuber, Chicago 1992, no. 4.