Katalog Farforu Faiansu i Maioliky

This extremely rare 1940 trade catalog represents the output of 10 state owned ceramics factories in small towns and villages all over the Ukraine after industry was nationalized in 1918. Today, we are more familiar with the graphic arts of Communist Russia as vehicles for propaganda, such as posters. The decorative arts of utilitarian objects, like the tableware featured in this catalog, were also important vehicles for disseminating political concepts of the new social order and Soviet nationalism to the masses in everyday life. The Stalinist era of the 1930’s combined “peasant” proletariat and folk art motifs and patterns with propagandist symbols, emphasizing social and communal values and military might while depicting positive images of workers and peasants.