From 6 October, the works of nearly twenty designers who worked at the Riga Porcelain Factory from the 1950s to the 1960s can be seen in the gallery of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design.

“The exhibition presents a selection of thirty-seven tableware sets, each with its unique story. These stories encompass the designer’s vision and ideas, as well as the circumstances and various aspects of the era, which may at times seem contradictory. Therefore, each selected set deserves attention,” says the curator Iliana Veinberga (Riga Porcelain Museum). 

“This exhibition offers insight into what defines Riga porcelain, its design, as well as into the characteristic features of the era and how they have changed over time. Hopefully, the exhibition will also cause the viewer to contemplate the reasons behind these changes and their integration into the design of the second half of the 20th century, a period marked by the Soviet occupation in both Latvia and Estonia.”

The curator suggests beginning with the “Augstā” (“High”) set when exploring the material. The exhibition features an early version of the set created by the artist, as well as a later version that was already in production. “You see that there is a form with decoration: one designer shapes the form while another adds the decorative elements. They merge and intertwine into a single whole,” explains Veinberga. 

The exhibition clearly outlines two factors that characterise the 1950s. First, it was the post-World War II era, when many ideologically controversial pre-war resources were used. And second, the Khrushchev thaw in the late 1950s brought about changes that became more apparent in the 1960s. The early 1960s can be described as the “golden age” when the iconic designs of the post-war decades took shape, while the late 1960s saw the initial emergence of mass production. 

“The exhibition created in cooperation with the Riga Porcelain Museum offers the pleasure of recognition for many – several designs from this period were used as templates in the porcelain painting studio of the Art Products Factory in Tallinn. Together with the creative contribution of local artists, these hand-decorated forms also reached Estonian homes,” says Kai Lobjakas, director of the ETDM.

Porcelain production in Riga has a long history. The nationalised successors of the Kuznetsov and Jessen porcelain factories, founded in 1841 and 1886, respectively, were merged in 1963 into the Riga Porcelain and Faience Factory, which was subsequently known as the Porcelain Factory.

While initially, the design of Riga tableware emulated those of other major manufacturers like the legendary German porcelain companies Rosenthal and Thomas, in the early 1950s, newly recruited artists were tasked with creating original designs. At the Riga factory, designers could handle both form and decoration, although assigning the decoration to separate artists was also common. Typically, several versions of the decoration would adorn a single set. Initially, decorations from the interwar period were used, but by the 1950s, they were being locally designed. Between 1958 and 1962, the Riga factory introduced silkscreen decorations for the first time, fundamentally transforming the creation of original designs, streamlining the decorating process, and enabling large-scale tableware production.

The exhibition will remain open until 21 January.

Curator: Iliana Veinberga / Riga Porcelain Museum

Exhibition team: Jūlija Abramova, Ieva Nagliņa, Ginta Elksne, Diāna Lauriņa / Riga Porcelain Museum

Graphic design: Tuuli Aule

The works on exhibition belong to the Riga Porcelain Museum and private collections.

Riga Porcelain Museum

The Riga Porcelain Museum is the only museum in Latvia dedicated to the history of porcelain art and manufacturing. The museum’s collection includes more than 10,000 items, covering the period from the mid-19th century, when the first porcelain factories were established on the territory of modern Latvia, to the 21st century. The museum, which was established in 2000 on the basis of the collection of the Riga Porcelain Factory Museum, has since delighted those interested in Latvian art history, design and industrial heritage.