Milk jug (from a tea service)

Art Historical Context

This elegant milk jug, part of a luxurious tea service, hails from the Imperial Por Manufactory in St Petersburg, Russia, around 1775. Established by Empress Elizabeth in 1744 and flourishing under Catherine the Great, manufactory produced porcelain rivaling the finest European workshops like Meissen and Svres. Tea services like this symbolized refined hospitality and imperial status during the Enlightenment era, when tea drinking became a fashionable social ritual across Europe's courts. Crafted from hard-paste porcelain—a durable, translucent material perfected by the factory through advanced kilning techniques—the jug stands just over 4 inches tall. Its delicate form is adorned with playful putti, those cherubic figures evoking Rococo whimsy with their chubby forms and joyful motifs. These decorations highlight the manufactory's mastery of intricate gilding and painting, blending Russian craftsmanship with Western influences. As a gem from The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this piece offers a glimpse into 18th-century opulence and the global exchange of luxury goods, underscoring porcelain's role in diplomatic gifts and elite collecting.

About the Artist

Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg · 1744–present

The Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1744 by Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov under the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, marked Russia's entry into porcelain production as the third such enterprise in Europe after Meissen and Vienna. Vinogradov, a mining engineer educated in Saxony, developed the nation's first hard-paste porcelain formula using local materials, drawi...