Blockade pattern. Collection cobalt mesh imperial porcelain factory cobalt mesh

A kind of symbol besieged Leningrad became legendary " Cobalt mesh" Sets in white and blue style first appeared in 1944 and became the hallmark of the Imperial Porcelain Factory. The pattern was invented by Leningrad artist Anna Yatskevich precisely during the years of the siege. Dmitry Kopytov will tell you how the idea for the drawing came about.

- “First, lines are drawn, then these “bugs” are placed at the crosshairs of these lines.”

Valentina Semakhina has been applying the same simple design to cups, teapots and saucers for almost 40 years. Every day he hand-paints 80 porcelain items. The woman was not at all tired of the monotonous work. The painter proudly says that her sets now decorate kitchens all over the world. The visiting card of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, the blue “Cobalt mesh” on dishes, first appeared in 1944. The 5-piece set was painted in a cold but attractive northern color by Leningrad artist Anna Yatskevich. Several photographs of her have been preserved in the factory museum.

Alexander Kucherov, advisor general director Imperial Porcelain Factory: “This is a photograph from 1945. Here she is already captured with two state awards: the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad", which she received in 1943, and the "Order of the Red Banner", which she received in the summer of 1944. “I believe that the Military Order of the Red Banner is a very high assessment of her work.”

The military order is fragile by nature, but the intelligent woman received it, of course, not for the new kind porcelain painting. She spent all 900 days of the blockade in her native Leningrad, at the factory. She refused to go with her colleagues to the Urals for evacuation. Victory was approaching. In my own way.

Alexander Kucherov, advisor to the general director of the Imperial Porcelain Factory: “On the pier next to the factory there was the destroyer “Ferocious.” A cable was stretched to it, life was glimmering on it. It had to be disguised. They stretched the nets, spread porcelain paints, and camouflaged him. It was closed. Not a single shell hit the plant territory. He merged with the Neva water.”

We managed to survive the terrible years only thanks to the work we loved. And books. There was no time to evacuate the factory library. The literature, collected in piles, remained lying in the snow-covered railway cars. Every day Anna Yatskevich brought books back on a sled. In 1943, after the blockade was broken, an art laboratory was reopened at the plant. And a year later, the first “Cobalt mesh” appeared on porcelain dishes.

Alexander Kucherov, advisor to the general director of the Imperial Porcelain Factory: “No one can say what exactly formed the basis of this drawing. Perhaps this was inspired by the windows of the besieged city, since her mother lived here, her sister lived here, they died in 1942, she buried them. Perhaps it’s the crossing of these paper strips.”

In Leningrad, windows were sealed with paper tapes so that the glass would not crack or fly out due to bombing. Footage from the blockade chronicles shows that white crosses then appeared on almost all the central streets of the city on the Neva.

Dmitry Kopytov, correspondent: “The version that the famous “Cobalt Grid” was invented by its creator, remembering the days of the siege, is confirmed by the fact: the originally painted cups and teapots were of such a gray-white color, which is quite in the tone of the Leningrad winter.”

There are other versions of the appearance of the “Cobalt Grid”, also related to the blockade.

Natalya Bordey, head of the press service of the Imperial Porcelain Factory: “There is a theory that the artist Anna Yatskevich went to the Neva during the blockade years in winter to make an ice hole in the river in order to have water on hand in case of a fire at the factory. From hunger, from fatigue, cracks in the ice, golden snowflakes in the bright rays of the sun - everything crossed in her imagination and this inspired her “Cobalt Mesh” decor.”

For the first time, a similar mesh on teapots and cups of the plant appeared under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The ornament was created by master Dmitry Vinogradov. But the stripes were pink then. The porcelain factory received several prestigious medals for the “Cobalt Mesh”. Nowadays, more than a hundred types of dishes are made here in the blue and white style. Since the 70s, the whole world has learned about the unusual Russian ornament. At the Russian Embassy in Paris, guests are still treated to meals using mesh dishes. Your usual Blue colour Cobalt is acquired after firing at a temperature of more than a thousand degrees. After the first, so-called gold flies are applied. True, it does not begin to shine immediately.

Alexandra Gorokhova, painter and stamper at the Imperial Porcelain Factory: “This black puddle is a gold-containing preparation, 12 percent gold. After firing it begins to sparkle, before firing appearance unsightly".

It is difficult to fake the technology, although craftsmen from China have tried several times. The secret is that the painting is underglaze, self made. Its author, Anna Yatskevich, had no heirs left after the war. The niece, who also worked at the porcelain factory, died shortly after the artist herself. But their business is still alive. And thousands of owners of the legendary sets with cobalt mesh considered and still consider this dish to be a kind of symbol of the Leningrad Victory.

Correspondent

Dmitry Kopytov

Oh, how cold the blockade winter of 1942 turned out to be!.. It seemed like ice patterns were everywhere: on the frozen windows of unheated apartments, in the thick ice of frozen reservoirs, which the weak hands of the exhausted residents of Leningrad tried in vain to break. People turned into shadows. Hungry, exhausted, tired of tears and losses. One of these ethereal shadows of the siege was Anna Adamovna Yatskevich, an artist at the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory. In 1942 she was 38 years old. She lived on the embankment of the Fontanka River in one of the courtyards-wells - typical for the city on the Neva. Mother and sister died of hunger, but Anya survived. She camouflaged the ships clinging to the Nevskaya embankment near the plant. Yes, yes, she made them invisible to the enemy - using ordinary porcelain paints.

Still, Anna was a bit of a sorceress... Dark-haired, thin to the point of transparency, an amazing dreamer, even in these terrible days she could see beauty in the ordinary. And in the windows taped crosswise, she saw geometric shapes.

Later they will turn into the most famous pattern of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, which became its sign, its signature style.

Everyone knows this simple and elegant pattern - “Cobalt Mesh”.

Thin crossed diagonal lines create a multi-dimensional composition; each intersection is topped with a tiny gold star. The shape of the “Tulip” tea set was designed by the artist of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, Serafima Yakovleva, and the “Cobalt Mesh” pattern was designed by Anna Yatskevich.

Of course, the craftsmen did not know that they were creating a masterpiece that would define the corporate style of the LFZ for many decades.

What was the victorious year of 1945 like for Anna Yatskevich? The city was recovering after the war. People returned to peaceful life.

I wanted to believe that everything terrible, all the losses were in the past. That the winter cold that already shackles your hands will not return, that life will be well-fed, comfortable, and most importantly, peaceful. Everyone has their own cemetery of loved ones behind them. Probably, Anna, sketching the famous “grid”, knew that she would not be able to forget her losses, loved ones who died during the siege, windows sealed crosswise... The golden stars are their souls, frozen forever in the dark frosty sky. Or maybe hope for the best, leading the way.

Hermitage researcher N. Shchetinina recalls: “The service appeared at the end of 1944. It has become a kind of quintessence of previous searches and achievements, new trends in the development of porcelain art... The author made her first attempt with a cobalt pencil. But the cobalt lay unevenly, and lines that were evenly filled with color were not obtained. It was decided to apply the drawing with a brush... In 1950, A. A. Yatskevich’s student, O. S. Dolgushina, under her leadership, completed the final version of painting the service, which was put into production.”

It is this service that is presented in the window of the Soviet hall of the department State Hermitage"Museum of the Porcelain Factory."

Someone saw in the “Cobalt Grid” motifs of the famous “Own” service from the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

The gilded mesh with purple forget-me-nots is really nice. But “Own” carries a different energy. Festive, palace, ceremonial. The royal lush courtyard is far from the restraint of St. Petersburg, the frosty simplicity of the “Cobalt Grid”.

Every year Anna traveled from dank, cold Leningrad to the Caucasus, to New Athos. There the rebellious river Bzyb flows in the mountains. Anna came home, blackly tanned, saturated with the southern sun. And she got back to work. She painted huge vases with portraits of the leader of nations and motifs of the Moscow metro. I came up with patterns for sets.

It was she, by the way, even before the war, who invented the light and elegant monogram “LFZ”, on long years which became his logo. Anna Adamovna never created her own family. But she had a beloved niece, Muse, who also devoted her life to working at the factory.

After one of her vacations on the Bzyb River, Anna Yatskevich fell ill and died in May 1952 at the age of 48. What a pity that she did not know about the triumph of the Cobalt Grid...

In 1958, a World's Fair EXPO-58. The USSR and its works occupied an entire pavilion there. Products from the Leningrad Order of the Red Banner of Labor porcelain factory named after Lomonosov were also widely presented. The “Cobalt Mesh” service created a sensation and was awarded a “Gold Medal”. And then he was awarded the “USSR Quality Mark”, and most importantly, the people loved him and accepted him. It is an honor to have a “mesh” in any home today.

Years go by, but “Cobalt Grid” lives on. It appears in new modifications, on a wide variety of porcelain products. If you look at a simple and laconic pattern for a long time, it seems as if unknown geometric worlds are opening up to you - like in a kaleidoscope. They add up to different pictures, meet and scatter, intersect again... Apparent simplicity geometric pattern hides the whole world and the whole Cosmos is different for everyone. Perhaps this is where the true genius of the artist lies.

March 5th, 2018 , 05:40 am

Not everyone knows that storing Leningrad porcelain dishes with the famous pattern in their cabinets and sideboards “ Cobalt mesh“, we keep the memory of the besieged days of Leningrad... The “Cobalt mesh” pattern is famous and recognizable all over the world. This exquisite combination of deep blue and snow-white is used for sets, tea pairs, and dining sets. The dishes decorated with cobalt mesh are suitable for serving tables at the most special events. The embodiment of simplicity, elegance and some kind of unobtrusive, but unconditional solemnity - the main distinctive features ornament.
It looks really stylish and expensive.
Story

Artist Anna Adamovna Yatskevich
This painting was born at the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (LFZ) in 1944 and became its signature pattern. It was invented by Anna Adamovna Yatskevich, a porcelain painting artist and the author of the famous LFZ logo.


Anna Yatskevich working on a vase for the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus (1939)
A native of Leningrad, who buried her sister and mother who died of hunger, Anna Yatskevich lived throughout the blockade in hometown; applied camouflage paint to ships. One day, returning home in the evening, Anna saw strange picture: crossed air defense searchlights reflected from the criss-crossed windows, forming a beautiful geometric pattern in the form of a grid.


What was the victorious year of 1945 like for Anna Yatskevich? The city was recovering after the war.
People returned to peaceful life. I wanted to believe that everything terrible, all the losses were in the past. That the winter cold that already shackles your hands will not return, that life will be well-fed, comfortable, and most importantly, peaceful. Everyone has their own cemetery of loved ones behind them. Probably, Anna, when sketching the famous “grid”, knew that she would not be able to forget her losses, loved ones who died during the siege, windows taped crosswise...
Golden stars are their souls, frozen forever in the dark frosty sky. Or maybe hope for the best, leading the way.


In 1945, the LFZ art laboratory resumed its work. Modest, inconspicuous Anna Adamovna continued to work. I painted vases and sets and came up with new patterns. She was one of the authors of the monumental “Victory” vase - for the first anniversary of our Victory over the Nazis. It was during this difficult post-war time that a reminiscent mesh pattern appeared on porcelain. Sets with such paintings began to be produced at the LFZ immediately after the victory in the war. The first sample was in a different color, but a year later Yatskevich played with her pattern in a new way, creating that same cobalt painting. The “Tulip” tea set was the first in the series. Experts today are confident that the cobalt-white ornament and the refined shape of the tulip make up a union of striking beauty.


Tea set “Tulip”
Material............................Hard porcelain
Type of product........................Tea service
Shape........................Tulpa n
Author of the form......................Yakovleva S.E.
Type of pattern........................Cobalt mesh
Author of the drawing......................Yatskevich A.A.
Weight, g.............................3887
Number of items.........6
Number of persons...............20
The artist was inspired by the dishes of the imperial court, painted with exquisite cobalt script. Although there is evidence that her set, which later became famous, was originally gold.


Elizabeth Petrovna's Own Service in the Hermitage


Empress Elizabeth Petrovna's own table and dessert service. Subject composition. Russia, St. Petersburg. Nevskaya Porcelain Manufactory (since 1765 - Imperial Porcelain Factory)


service “Own” of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in the Hermitage
The “Own” service, made in mid-18th century century for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by master Dmitry Vinogradov -
founder of the Russian porcelain school.
Cobalt pencil
One day, unusual pencils produced by the Sacco and Vanzetti factory were brought to the LFZ. The pencil core was paint for painting porcelain. The factory's artists tried it, but did not appreciate the new product. And only Anna Yatskevich new pencil I liked it. She decided to master the technology and painted her first “Cobalt Mesh” set with it. Today, not all researchers believe in this version, but that copy of the service is still kept on display in the Russian Museum.


By the way, Yatskevich is the author of another unusual pattern - the signature monogram of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, which the factory uses to brand its products even today.

“Cobalt Mesh” was published in wide circulation in 1950. The pattern turned out to be very beautiful, everyone liked it and was, so to speak, adopted. But great fame did not come to the artist - however, she was awarded the Order of the Red Star for her innovation.





The “Cobalt Mesh” was applied only with a brush; special grooves were made on the porcelain itself so that the lines were even. The final version of the painting was performed by Anna Adamovna’s student, Olga Dolgushina.






Unfortunately, Anna Yatskevich did not live to see the triumph of her pattern. Her health, undermined by the blockade, was not enough for her to live a long life. She, like many siege survivors, died soon after the war, never knowing that her drawing had become a symbol of Russian porcelain...
Prestigious victory
In 1958, the World Porcelain Exhibition took place in Brussels. LFZ brought it to her huge collection. A line of products was also presented that were not specially prepared for the exhibition; the purpose of these things here was different: to show the breadth of the assortment.







And suddenly the service from this line with “Cobalt mesh” received the main award - gold medal for the pattern and shape. Thus, the mesh pattern, reminiscent of the siege, became the most recognizable symbol of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory.



The Imperial Porcelain Factory, founded in 1744 in St. Petersburg by order of the daughter of Peter the Great, Empress Elizabeth, became the first porcelain factory in Russia and the third in Europe.


Service with the monogram of Catherine II. Imperial Porcelain Factory. 1780 g


a dish from the service ordered by Catherine the Great for her favorite Count Grigory Orlov with his monogram. Imperial Porcelain Factory, 1763-1770. Decor project - G. Kozlov


Cup with saucer and lid with the monogram of Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Paul I. Imperial Porcelain Factory, period of the reign of Paul I, 1796-1801. Has no analogues in Russian museum collections


The following service reflects the heyday of the Imperial Porcelain Factory in the first third of the 19th century, when the factory produced large ceremonial services for the palaces of the House of Romanov. The “Alexandria” service was first made for the wife of Nicholas I, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.


Imperial Porcelain Factory, “Cottage” service, “Alexandria” form
(1827-1829)
It was here that the talented Russian scientist D.I. Vinogradov (1720-1758) discovered the secret of making “white gold”. For the first time in the history of ceramics, he compiled a scientific description of porcelain production, close to the latest concepts ceramic chemistry. The porcelain created by Vinogradov was not inferior in quality to Saxon, and in the composition of the mass prepared from domestic raw materials, it was close to Chinese.


Service of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich with the monogram of VKKN.
Imperial Porcelain Factory 1848


More items from the service of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich with the monogram “VKKN” (Konstantinovsky service). Russia, Saint-Petersburg. Imperial Porcelain Factory. 1848. Project by F. G. Solntsev. Porcelain; polychrome overglaze painting, gilding, circling


A service with paintings based on Raphael's Loggias in the Vatican (based on a sketch by Vivan Bose). St. Petersburg, Imperial Porcelain Factory. 1861 Porcelain; underglaze coating, overglaze painting, paste, gilding. Exhibited at the State Historical Museum.


Coffee service "Russian Ballet" Imperial Porcelain Factory.
Saint Petersburg.

Confectura with seven rosettes on bronze branches. Russia, Saint-Petersburg. Imperial Porcelain Factory. Mid XIX century. Porcelain; polychrome overglaze painting, gilding
For most of its history, the Imperial Porcelain Factory supplied porcelain exclusively to the royal court. Today, the company produces fine fine porcelain, porcelain sets and porcelain figurines, and is the only manufacturer of bone china in Russia. Each piece is handmade and hand-painted, and plated with a generous amount of 916 gold. All products of the Imperial Porcelain Factory are stamped with the original factory seal, guaranteeing their 100% authenticity.


Gothic service. Russia, Saint-Petersburg. Imperial Porcelain Factory. 1832

banquet dining and dessert service of Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich. Reconstruction of the set table. Russia, St. Petersburg. Imperial Porcelain Factory


Cabinet service items. It is from the period of Catherine’s reign that examples of antique porcelain from Russia date back, the most highly valued in our time at world auctions.


Reconstruction of a set table in the Hermitage. Russia, St. Petersburg. Imperial Porcelain Factory


Porcelain collection in the Hermitage
Imperial Porcelain Factory - a unique phenomenon. One of the few surviving factories that managed to survive the cataclysms of revolutions and wars, intact historical eras, and at the same time for almost three centuries. Its products - artistic porcelain - are leaders in Russia in terms of the time of their origin, quality and significant contribution to Russian and world culture.

Factory products the best examples arts and crafts won high awards at international exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Brussels, Vienna. They are represented in the collections largest museums world and in private collections. They fight for the right to own them at the prestigious international auctions Sotheby's and Christie's.





The artistic reputation of imperial porcelain increased significantly after the collection of the factory museum, which includes samples of the factory's products from the mid-18th century to contemporary works by artists, came under the patronage of the State Hermitage, and the museum, while remaining at the factory, became a branch of the world treasury of culture.












Cobalt mesh pattern in contemporary art
The dark blue ornament does not lose its relevance today. The LFZ plant has exclusive rights to it. Today, the “Cobalt mesh” pattern is the epitome of exquisite Russian porcelain. Dishes for tea parties and formal dinners, vases and souvenirs, cups with exquisite paintings are famous throughout the world.





Sources:

This painting on porcelain is not only business card one plant, but also a St. Petersburg brand

Mass production of sets with cobalt mesh decor at the Leningrad Porcelain Factory named after. Lomonosov began in 1950 - that’s why in 2015 they celebrate the 65th anniversary of this special painting. But in fact, as they say at the factory, the mesh was created during the war. Its author is the artist of the plant, Anna Adamovna Yatskevich. There are more than one legend about what inspired her to create this pattern.

There is a version that the pattern was created in memory of the cross-glued windows of houses and the cross light of searchlights that illuminated the sky of besieged Leningrad. There is a legend that the decorative motif was inspired by cracks in the ice on the Neva and frosty patterns on the windows that regularly appeared in the poorly heated premises of the porcelain factory.

But, as art historians say, in fact, during the war, the idea of ​​a cobalt mesh was inspired by Anna Yatskevich with elegant and elegant porcelain of the 18th century - the Elizabethan Own service. At the new Nevskaya Porcelain Manufactory, as this plant on the banks of the Neva was called when it was founded, the service was created by Dmitry Vinogradov in 1756 for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Its decor is a gilded mesh with purple forget-me-nots at the intersection of lines. The cobalt mesh at its intersections has gilded bees, as these finishing touches of the pattern are called at the factory. The mesh is painted by hand, and the bees are stamped.

In the last century, tourists and guests of the city certainly took cobalt mesh home as the main souvenir from Leningrad, along with the “Mishka in the North” candies. In our century there was a period of fakes, but fake cobalt is easy to distinguish: it is usually on earthenware, the lines are blurred, there are no gilded bees and company marks of the factory.

Journalists from St. Petersburg, who visited the plant to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the creation and 65th anniversary of the production of this essentially urban brand, were able to see cobalt mesh in its development. Now there is a purple mesh (they call it “blues”), and a cobalt check, and cobalt stripes - a reference to the vest. As they say at the plant, currently a slightly modified “cobalt mesh” pattern is produced on more than 100 product items.

However, today, when the price of a tea cup and saucer in the classic “cobalt mesh” painting reaches almost two and a half thousand rubles, porcelain from the Northern capital has ceased to be as widespread and popular as in former times, when it was available in almost every Leningrad home. In 2005, from the democratic LFZ, the enterprise, now private, was renamed IFZ - the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

According to Tatyana Tylevich, General Director of the Imperial Porcelain Factory OJSC, “the crisis could not but affect the sales system, because the purchasing power of the population is falling significantly and, of course, our product is not essential. Of course, the costs of raw materials, materials that we have in euros and dollars, have all increased quite significantly.” This also explains the not the most affordable prices for IFZ.

Porcelain tea set, IPE, painting "Cobalt mesh", author Anna Yatskevich

Among the many porcelain decors and various patterns, one of the most famous and recognizable is “cobalt mesh”. This painting, which first decorated porcelain in 1945, has already become a classic of decorative art and a signature, distinctive sign of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (Imperial Porcelain Factory), by whose master it was created. The famous pattern was invented by artist Anna Yatskevich. True, at first it was not cobalt, but gold. The LFZ began producing sets with this pattern immediately after the war, in 1945. A year later, Yatskevich interpreted her pattern and created the famous cobalt mesh from gold mesh. She used it for the first time to paint a tea set in the “Tulip” shape by Serafima Yakovleva. In 1958, Cobalt Mesh, a simple and elegant pattern, took the world by storm. This year the World Exhibition took place in Brussels, where the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory presented its best creatures, including objects decorated with this painting. The service with “Cobalt Mesh” was not specially prepared for the exhibition, it was simply part of the plant’s assortment, and the award was all the more unexpected for LFZ - the service received a gold medal for its pattern and shape.

Anna Adamovna Yatskevich (1904-1952), graduate of the Leningrad Art and Industrial College (1930). She worked at the LFZ from 1932 to 1952. Porcelain painting artist. Fame came to her as the creator of the famous “Cobalt Grid” only after her death. She never learned about the triumph of her painting in Brussels.

How did the “cobalt mesh” pattern come about?
There is a version that the famous Yatskevich pattern was inspired by the “Own” service, which was made for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna by Dmitry Vinogradov, the creator of porcelain in Russia, back in the mid-18th century. Also, one of the festive services of the IFZ, which supplied porcelain to the imperial court of Nicholas I, was “ Cobalt service" This service was a repetition of its more famous predecessor with the same name. It was once made at the Vienna manufactory by special order of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II. The monarch decided to give such a gift to the Russian Emperor Pavel Petrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna, who were visiting him.

To win over the heir Russian throne Joseph II decided to present a luxurious porcelain service as a gift. The model by which the “Cobalt Service” was created at the Vienna Manufactory was another service - a product of the Sèvres Manufactory, which in 1768 Louis XV presented to the Danish King Christian VII. The Viennese service was decorated with gold openwork painting “cailloute” (French - to pave with cobblestones) on a cobalt background, bouquets of polychrome flowers in reserves, framed with gold rocailles.

Paul I appreciated the luxurious gift of Joseph II, as evidenced by the fact that when he went to war with Sweden, he bequeathed it to his mother-in-law.

However, the emperor returned from the war in good health and continued to own the “Cobalt Service”. In the 1840s, the “Cobalt Service” was located in Gatchina, in the Priory Palace, and it was then that it was replenished at the IFZ.

In 1890, the “Cobolt Service” with the mark of the Vienna Manufactory in its entirety was sent to Winter Palace. Part of the service remained in the Gatchina Palace, the one that was made at the IFZ. Today, 73 items from the famous service made in Vienna have survived to this day.
Comparing the “Cobalt Mesh” by Yatskevich and the painting of the “Own” service, experts consider the similarities to be very distant - the artist’s mesh is more intricate, made with underglaze cobalt. At the intersections of the blue lines, the grid is decorated with 22-karat gold stars, which gives the painting even more nobility and elegance. The “Own” service has small pink flowers in the knots of the gold mesh.

Plate from the “Own” service of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, 1756 - 1762. Production Nevskaya Porcelain Manufactory (since 1765 - Imperial Porcelain Factory)

There is one more interesting point in the history of the creation of this decor, it is associated with the pencil with which the artist Anna Yatskevich applied her famous pattern to porcelain. In those days, the LFZ came up with the idea of ​​using a so-called cobalt pencil. Of course, the pencil was an ordinary one, made at the Sacco and Vanzetti factory, but its core was porcelain paint. The factory’s artists didn’t like the pencil, only Anna Yatskevich decided to try the new product and painted the first copy of the “Cobalt Mesh” service for them. Whether this is true or not, this copy of the service is now on display at the Russian Museum.
“Cobalt mesh,” according to experts, looked very advantageous on the “Tulip” shaped service; it successfully played off it and gave it solemnity. Subsequently, this painting began to decorate LFZ (IFZ) and other products: coffee and table sets, cups, vases and souvenirs. By the way, Anna Yatskevich also made another contribution to the development of the porcelain factory - she is the author of the famous LFZ logo (1936), which is depicted on all products of the enterprise.