Russia

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, has an important collection of Greco-Bactrian and Bactrian gold and silver vessels, many of which were likely in the Siberian collection of Tsar Peter the Great (1672-1725). In 1940, Kamilla Trever (1892-1974), a curator at the Hermitage and a Russian historian specializing in the history and culture of Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and Iran, published this important but obscure Russian-language work on the collection.

El Lissitzky (1890-1941) was a Russian avant-garde artist, designer, photographer, typographer, and architect whose work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and constructivist movements. His experimentation with techniques and styles went on to dominate 20th Century graphic design. Lissitzky designed this cover of Wendingen, an international Dutch magazine focusing on modern architecture, art, and design from 1918-1931. This issue was dedicated entirely to Frank Lloyd Wright with text by H.P.

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.