In the late November of 1949, which was the year of the 70th anniversary of Pavel Petrovich Bazhov, a parcel with a porcelain statuette arrived at the address of the editorial office of the “Uralsky Rabochiy” (“Ural Worker”) newspaper. The letter attached to it said:

Two months after he had received the gift, Bazhov arranged a return parcel and accompanied it with the following words:

“My young friends! I received your wonderful gift so long ago that I have to explain the reasons for my unacceptably long silence. Of course, I was very pleased to learn that the Komsomol members of your factory were interested in the images of Ural tales, and I wanted not just to thank you for your attention, but to somehow consolidate and even strengthen this interest. For this purpose, I decided to collect all the recently illustrated editions of my tales for the return parcel … The drawings, as you will see, differ in style… I will be glad if, for example, the theme of ‘Silver Hoof’ or ‘The Dancing Fire Maid’, which can be suitable for decorating household items, will also attract the attention of sculptors and other masters of your factory… In conclusion, I thank the factory’s Komsomol members once again, especially Comrade Maksimchenko and all those who were directly involved in creating this excellent composition.”

Although the sculptural composition is titled “Stone Flower”, it depicts an episode from the tale “Mountain Master”. This is the only fragment of Bazhov’s works when all three main characters of the cycle meet: Katerina, Danilo and the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. Specifically, it is the episode when Katerina enters the realm of the Mistress to take her fiancé home.

Natalia Alekseyevna Maksimchenko who made the sculpture was an artist-sculptor and ceramist-painter. In the middle of the 20th century, she worked at the Dmitrov Porcelain Factory, then at the Riga Porcelain and Faience Factory. Natalia Alekseyevna was famous for her paintings of faience dishes, she also actively collaborated with architects, was engaged in the design of many public places in Moscow and Sochi, and participated in All-Union and foreign exhibitions. However, porcelain compositions based on folklore of different peoples and author’s tales were here signature works. In 1955, in collaboration with the Soviet sculptor Semyon Yakovlevich Kovner, she created a portrait of Pavel Bazhov made of wood.