Imperial Russian Plate Early 20th Century Gardner Porcelain With Pahlavi Seal

The Gardner Porcelain workshop was founded in Moscow in 1776.
Note the word 'Gardner' is written in Farsi with the Pahlavi stamp. This is because by the mid-19th century Gardner Factory was so prestigious that they were commissioned by the Central Asian monarchies and the Persian elite to produce porcelain for them. In the centre of the plate is written "Peace be on Ali Ashgar".Slight yellowing on one side.
By the mid-1770s Gardner Factory had already begun to compete with the Imperial Porcelain Factory in terms of production quality and artistic merit. The result was to earn Gardner Porcelain a multitude of commissions from the Russian Imperial court, the most prestigious of which was the creation of enormous and magnificent services for royal banquets. Empress Catherine the Great was a great admirer of Gardner porcelain, and commissioned the factory to furnish a suburban residence for her son.
Imperial commissions increased the prestige of the Gardners' Factory and attracted a host of private commissions from wealthy members of the Russian nobility. As more private factories were established in Russia in the 19th century, the Gardner Factory maintained its high standards and continued to enjoy a distinguished reputation for excellence. Aside from the very high quality of their production, the Gardner Factory evolved to accommodate changing tastes and fashions. The defeat of Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812 by the Russians sparked a new wave of national consciousness that sparked a new interest in the life of the common man. The aesthetics of High Neoclassicism and the detail of a romanticized scene of Russian peasant life are characteristic of this period. The Gardner Factory continued to receive imperial commissions until the end of the 19th century.