Taras Bulba

Country: Ukraine

Manufactory: Polonsky ZHK

Date of establishment: 1970s

Sculptor: K. Kuznetsov

Size (cm): 47

Porcelain Story

Polonsky factory of artistic ceramics was considered one of the oldest in Ukraine. It was created in the Novograd-Volynsky district of the Volyn province in 1895 by a middle-class businessman Moses Brichkin, close to the unique deposits of clay, kaolin and other components so necessary to create high-quality porcelain products. The plant was called differently in different years. It closed several times and reopened just as many times. And the creative guidelines of the team in different years radically differed from each other.

If in the initial period of production the main direction was the production of elegant tea sets and figurines reminiscent of Meissen, then everything was greatly simplified - up to the production of mass-produced dishes for representatives of the Soviet proletariat.

In the 1960s, a group of plant workers trained at the Leningrad Porcelain Factory (at that time the main porcelain enterprise in the Soviet Union) began to look for new themes and new subjects to create works that would make the products of the Polonsky factory recognizable. For a while, they succeeded. It was then that figurines dedicated to the heroes of Soviet sports, as well as the heroes of historical works and popular folk tales, appeared. Just at that time, one of the most recognizable porcelain images of the Polonsky factory was created - a tall, stately, beautifully hand-painted Taras Bulba.