Gardner

The English merchant Francis Gardner opened his factory in Verbilki, outside Moscow, in 1766 — the first private porcelain works in Russia. Gardner won the court's favour with the four great order services (St George, St Andrew, St Alexander Nevsky, St Vladimir) yet built the business on the Moscow merchant table: robust, warmly painted tea wares and the celebrated figures of peasants, craftsmen and street types.

Gardner figures are the folk encyclopedia of old Russia, and the factory's marks — from the Latin G to the later Moscow double-headed eagle — are keenly studied and keenly faked. In 1892 the works passed to the Kuznetsov partnership, which kept the prestigious Gardner mark for export lines.