Porcelain and earthenware products made at the enterprises of Matvey Sidorovich Kuznetsov came into fashion at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Tea and dinner sets, cup and saucer pairs, plates, figurines and much more were both mass-produced and released in “exclusive” editions and were affordable even to peasant families. However, the hallmark of Kuznetsov’s manufactories were porcelain butter dishes. They were shaped like animals, vegetables and fruits, which reflected the style of naturalism in the art of ceramics of the late 19th century.
The butter dish on display at the museum is shaped like an appetizing cucumber lying on a leaf. The leaf rests on a relatively high oval base. The butter dish consists of two halves of a cucumber. The upper one is the lid. The lower one is placed on a leaf with a figured handle in the form of a green curved branch. The painting is multicolored: the lower part of the leaf is dark green; the cucumber’s color ranges from dark green to light green and yellowish.
Even though butter dishes were originally intended for storing butter, they were often used for other purposes: some saw them as boxes, others as candy boxes, pâté bowls or sugar bowls. Butter dishes were also viewed as décor pieces: they were pleasing to the eye and often used as gifts. The shapes of the butter dishes were varied and whimsical: “melon”, “pumpkin”, “hen”, “cucumber”, “bunch of grapes”, “kalach”, “nut”, “pineapple”, a butter dish in the form of a stack of blini, there was even a butter dish shaped like a bow. For a long time, the idea for these products was attributed solely to the Kuznetsov enterprise. But art historians note that the owner of the factory borrowed the idea from England, where he often traveled to become familiarized with the experience of large British earthenware enterprises. Back in the 18th century, the famous English ceramist Josiah Wedgwood made butter dishes shaped like a head of cabbage. This idea was successfully introduced at Kuznetsov’s factories and further developed by his craftsmen.
Today, experts and connoisseurs consider Kuznetsov porcelain wares, which have long been called “Kuznetsovshchina”, to be genuine works of applied art.
