Russian Porcelain Saucer Persan. Private Russian Porcelain Factories, 1820s

A rare Russian porcelain deep saucer of funnel-shaped form, produced by one of the private porcelain manufactories of the Russian Empire during the 1820s. Executed in fine white porcelain, the piece is enriched with a broad matte gilt border delicately engraved with fine tooling, a decorative treatment characteristic of the reigns of Alexander I and the early years of Nicholas I. The centre is painted with a finely executed polychrome miniature depicting a young Persian nobleman in sumptuous Eastern attire set within a southern landscape featuring a palm tree and distant mountains. Such Orientalist compositions enjoyed considerable popularity during the first third of the nineteenth century, when images inspired by the exotic East became closely associated with the European culture of tea drinking, transforming tableware into evocative reminders of distant lands. The reverse bears the red underglaze inscription Persan, identifying the depicted figure and characteristic of decorative porcelain series produced in Russia during this period. Marks: Red underglaze inscription Persan. Dimensions: Diameter: 12.5 cm. Condition: Very good condition. Minor signs of age and light wear to the gilding consistent with the period.