Reports of Employees of the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory on Foreign Business Trips as a Source of Information about the Technology of Porcelain Production of the Late 19th — Early 20th Century

The article is devoted to the study of porcelain production technology in Europe in the 1880s — 1910s. In the 1880s, it became necessary to modernize the St. Petersburg Imperial Porcelain Manufactory. In 1880, porcelain factories in France, Germany and Austria-Hungary were visited by A. P. Ivanov and A. K. Khovansky, in 1884, by D. N. Guryev, Y. O. Byk and K. F. Klever, in 1904, by P. S. Filosofov, in 1913, by T. A. Poorten and N. N. Kachalov. Based on the results of the business trips, detailed reports were compiled, which are the main sources for this article. All aspects of ceramic production technology are reflected in the reports: raw materials, processing of materials, features of the composition of porcelain masses, methods of molding products; the firing equipment and its performance, methods of glazing products and nuances of their painting at different enterprises are described. The manufactory’s management drew conclusions about the technical and technological lag of the domestic porcelain industry from the leading Western industries and took measures to remedy the situation. The employees’ reports on foreign business trips make it possible to compare the peculiarities of the porcelain production at the leading European manufactories, which expands the opportunities of researchers and restorers in attributing products, detecting fakes and performing porcelain restoration.