Product Description
At the Fair (На Ярморке). Kiev Experimental Ceramic-Art Factory (KEKhZ). The statuette is based on an original design by the master sculptor Vladislav Ivanovich Shcherbina (1926–2017). Kiev Factory blue book backstamp used from 1960-1975. English letters indicate piece was made for export. Porcelain, overglaze art painting, gilding, glaze. Excellent condition, no restoration, no damage. Uncommon in this size. 7¼ inches in height, 1 only.
A Zaporozhian Cossack Beyond the Danube (Запорожец за Дунаем), also known as Cossacks in Exile is a Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) about Cossacks of the Danubian Sich. The story depicts the events following the destruction of the island fortress of Zaporizhian Sich, the historic stronghold of the Ukrainian Cossacks on the Dnieper River.
One of the best-known Ukrainian comic operas depicting national themes, the comedy arises from the efforts made by a Cossack clan to adjust to their new home, and from the eccentric behaviour of an amorous Turkish Sultan. The plot revolves around a chance encounter between Ivan Karas, an old Dnieper Cossack and the Turkish Sultan travelling incognito, resulting in permission for all the "Cossacks beyond the Danube" to resettle on Imperial Russian land, back in Ukraine.
The Kiev Experimental Art Ceramics Factory (Kiev ECC) was founded in 1924 on the basis of a small workshop, which manufactured ceramic paints and decals. During World War II, the plant was destroyed but restored with the influx of capital investment. Mid-20th century found an expansion of the factory to manufacture decorative articles. Eventually the large art workshop became one of the best in the USSR at that time. Famous porcelain artists and sculptors that worked at the plant included O. L. Zhnikrup , V. I. Shcherbina , O. P. Rapay-Markish , G. M. Kaluga, A. D. Sorokin and many others. Also, Petrikov's painting on porcelain was introduced here for the first time. The fall of the USSR was not kind to these types of enterprises and eventually the factory ceased to exist. A collection of museum-quality pieces were to have been transferred to the State Museum of Decorative Ukrainian Art, but instead disappeared and presumed stolen. The factory's last incarnation was as Kiev Porcelain LLC, and went under in 2006.
