Chessmen (32)

Natalya Danko|Elena Danko|State Porcelain Manufactory, near Leningrad

1922 · Porcelain · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The pieces are highly propagandistic in treatment in favor of Communism. The king on the 'Capitalist' side is represented as Death in armor and an ermine-lined cloak, and the queen as Fortuna with a cornucopia, from which, however, not produce, but gold coins, are spilling out. The pawns are in chains. On the 'Communist' side the king is an honest blacksmith, and the queen has a true horn of plenty. The pawns hold sickles and sheaves of wheat. Following the Russian chess tradition, inherited from czarist days, the rooks are boats. Other sets with the same subject matter have been made in painted wood, with the 'Capitalist' king as a financier in a top hat. All the pieces are marked on the underside with a hammer and sickle and "made in Russia, U.S.S.R." in red enamel. They were made at the State Porcelain Manufactory near Leningrad, which was formerly the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg later "Petrograd.". The interest in making chess sets of porcelain survives even major political changes-just as does the game itself.

Artist

Natalya Danko|Elena Danko|State Porcelain Manufactory, near Leningrad

Date

1922

Medium

Porcelain

Culture

Russian, Petrograd

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Gustavus A. Pfeiffer, 1948