Figurine “Little Rowan”

Technique: Porcelain, painting, gilding.
Size: Height 23 cm.

Figurine “Little Rowan”. USSR, the Urals, Sysert Art Porcelain Factory, sculptor N. S. Inozemtsev, 1978. Porcelain, painting, gilding. Height 23 cm. On the underside, a red printed mark depicting a seated squirrel with a cone, to the right of it the numeral “8”, below it a blue printed mark: “Ts 3-30/ S2”. Condition: signs of use, general surface soiling, technical defects, wear, rubbing of the gilding. Nikolai Sergeevich Inozemtsev (1930 – 2016) – artist-sculptor, Merited Artist of Russia, leading artist of the Sysert factory. Born on 25 December 1930 in the village of Khob-Vasilyevskoye, Pervomaisky District, Voronezh Oblast. In 1958–1963 he studied at the Abramtsevo School of Art and Industry under the teachers L. P. Azarova and A. V. Makan. At the Sysert Art Porcelain Factory since 1963. For more than 10 years he headed the creative group, where he worked as an artist-sculptor. His first product was the coffee service “Tulip”. In the 1960s–1980s the artist created a series of works (porcelain) dedicated to Pavel Petrovich Bazhov and his tales: decorative vases with a bas-relief portrait of the writer; souvenir vases depicting Danila the Master and the stone flower. Participant in exhibitions in Moscow and Sverdlovsk. Participant in exhibitions at VDNKh since 1974. In 1977 he designed the factory mark depicting a seated squirrel with a cedar cone. His works are in the collection of the Kuskovo Estate State Museum and in Ural museums. In 2000 he was awarded the title of Merited Artist of Russia. Sysert porcelain – a type of folk art craft involving the making and painting of porcelain and faience, existing in the city of Sysert, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Household ceramics had been produced in Sysert since the 19th century. Clay was extracted on the bank of the Sysert River and along the banks of the Sysert factory pond. Before the revolution, the pottery workshop “Goncharka” of the Kharitonov brothers supplied all the surrounding villages with ceramic ware. In 1928 an artel producing ceramics was formed on the basis of “Goncharka”. Later, in 1946, the artel “Promkooperator” emerged from the merger of the artels “Novy Put” and “Krasny Partizan”. They produced tableware, sculpture, toys and dolls' heads. In the late 1940s interest arose in the local deposit of coloured and white clays. On 10 October 1960 the artel was transformed into the “Sysert Ceramic Products Factory”. New shops and more modern firing kilns appeared at the factory, and new products were mastered. In 1953 the artists with specialist training N. F. Malyshev and N. S. Inozemtsev came to the enterprise and set about raising the artistic level of its products. They subsequently received the titles of Merited Artists of Russia. Since 1966 the products have been exhibited annually at the VDNKh exhibition in Moscow. In 1977 the factory was renamed the “Sysert Art Porcelain Factory”. In 1977 the factory is renamed the Sysert Art Porcelain Factory. After the change of name, the factory mark had to be changed. The competition was won by a stylised squirrel holding a cedar cone in its paws – a creative find of Inozemtsev's. From that time the factory has produced items of complex form and varied artistic design. In the early 1980s an experimental and technological laboratory and a creative group for the creation of highly artistic products were set up at the factory. In 1991–92 – privatisation of the enterprise and reorganisation of the factory into the closed joint-stock company “Sysertsky Farfor”. In 1994 the products of CJSC “Sysertsky Farfor” were classified by the regional art expert council as items of folk art craft.