Russian plate found in the back of a wardrobe sells for £8,000 at auction

A RUSSIAN Revolution plate has sold for £8,000 at auction after being discovered in the back of a wardrobe at a house clearance in Stratford-onAvon.

The 10-inch dish, which was found wrapped in a tea-towel, was hand-painted in 1921, four years after the Bolsheviks rose to power under Vladimir Lenin.

It was found by Bigwood Fine Art Auctioneers, who were asked to do a house clearance.

Originally, the plate was estimated to sell at auction for £60, however it ended up selling for £8,000 to a buyer in Eastern Europe on Friday, September 4.

Mark Ashley, a senior valuer and auctioneer, who has appeared on the BBC series Bargain Hunt, said: “The Russian plate was white porcelain, which was made for the Imperial factories.

“The Tsar would have had all this commissioned for the palaces and aristocracy.

“With the revolution in 1917, workers got hold of the plates, the blanks, and then hand-painted them with hammers, sickles and things to do with revolutionary symbolism.

“So we did a little bit of research and found that there were some sort of reproduction ones making about £50. You have to be very careful because we’re not specialists in Russian plates. Could it be a reproduction and someone just got any old white plate and put a few handpainted symbols on it?

“There were some examples making hundreds of pounds and then some examples can make into the thousands.

“With the internet, you put it out there then really let the market find the value.

“We did think it would make a few hundred but the beauty of the internet is it goes out and all the right collectors and dealers get interested.

“It could be people who operate out of a gallery in Moscow and the beauty of the internet is they pick up on it. A fight ensued for it to take it up to £8000, which was fantastic.”

Under the new regime, the Imperial Porcelain Factory was taken over and they started reproducing Communist designed crockery with the leftover porcelain blanks. The plates were decorated with propaganda slogans and revolutionary images as a symbol of rebellion against the toppled aristocracy.

Mark, who has over 30 years of experience, also found a Ruskin vase in the property which sold for £5500.

A slogan on the back of the plate translates as: “All who are bold and young of heart should take up the book, a sickle and a hammer”

The base includes the green imperial cypher of Nicholas II, dating back to 1902, along with the painter’s initials and name in Cyrillic.