The limited release of plates was timed to coincide with the royal visit of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Aleksandra Feodorovna to France in 1896. At the turn of the 20th century, works with portraits of the imperial couple were in the lead in the list of souvenir products manufactured by many French companies.
The plates, which are on display at the Palace Complex of Oldenburgs, were produced at the Sarreguemines factory, which is located in Lorraine, in northeastern France. Sarreguemines pottery ware has been famous since the 1790s, when three Strasbourg tobacco traders - Joseph Fabri and two Jacoby brothers, Augustine and Nicola-Henri, - built a pottery factory in Sarreguemines, on the left bank of the Saar. At the turn of the 20th century, Sarreguemines was considered one of the largest pottery ware producers in Europe. More than 3,000 people worked at its factories, which were located in various cities.
Photographs of the photographer Aniklot Pazetti became the basis for the decoration of the commemorative plates. In April 1882, together with Stepan Soloviev, he opened a photographic studio on Nevsky Prospect. Almost immediately after the opening, in June 1882, the workshop of Soloviev and Pazetti was honored with attention by Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Subsequently, the photographer was more than once honored to fulfill orders both for the imperial couple themselves and for other members of the royal family. He took pictures of the imperial members in his studio on Nevsky Prospect, in the Winter Palace and in Tsarskoye Selo. In 1896, Aniklot Pazetti received a bronze medal at the All-Russian Exhibition of the Russian Photographic Society in Moscow for the portraits of the emperor and his wife.
The family of Emperor Nicholas II often used the services of Aniklot Pazetti. He was a real artist and could create an atmosphere of ease, thanks to which the pictures turned out to be lyrical and natural. Working with the Empress proved to be an effective advertisement for Pazetti, which made his photo studio famous for many years. Besides imperial members, famous writers, artists, musicians and other figures of that time were very fond of taking pictures at Pazetti’s.
