A Set of Four Russian Porcelain Soup Plates from the Raphael Service, Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg, Period of Alexander III (1881-1894)

the center of each soup plate with a classical figure en grisaille against a dark grey ground within a hexagonal border, the border decorated with putti and mythical creatures against iron red grounds in circular reserves and alternating with friezes of grotesques, creatures, and putti against a blue ground and with seated griffins with raised wings, with gilt border and gilded foot.

Christie's New York, April 29, 1987, lot 25, illustrated

some minor rubbing to gilding
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Inspired by the 400th anniversary of the birth of the Renaissance master Raphael Sanzio da Urbino (1483-1520) in 1883 and a major exhibition held in St. Petersburg that year, Emperor Alexander III specially commissioned the Raphael Service for use in Great Catherine Palace of Tsarskoe Selo. The Raphael service was the most important service produced at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The ornament is carefully derived from motifs in the Hermitage's Raphael Loggia, which had been copied for Catherine II after frescoes by Raphael and his students in the loggias of the Vatican. The service's primary decoration alternates panels with human and animal figures interwoven with scrolls and foliage and medallions with antique figures en grisaille set against gray, celadon, iron red, or light blue backgrounds. The project was so complex that Leonard Leonardovich Schaufelberger (1839-1894), head of the manufactory's painting workshop, oversaw the designs, and Emperor Alexander III personally approved most of them. Indeed, the service was so unusual that pieces from it are uniquely marked with large, stenciled cyphers of the ruling monarch in tooled gold Slavonic script. The ornately painted service was completed in 1903 after twenty years' work and included only fifty place settings. The following year, the service was moved to the Anichkov Palace in St. Petersburg for use by the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. On the service and its history, see T.V. Petrova's note in Pod tsarskim venzelem, St. Petersburg, 2007, pp. 200-201.