Tea-set Inspired by Pavel Bazhov's Tale
"The Giant's Mitten"
A gift to Joseph Stalin on his 79th birthday from the staff of the Baranov
Porcelain Factory of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1949
This china tea set comprises 12 cups and saucers, a tea pot, a sugar pot, a milk
pot and a waste bowl. What is so particular about it is that the tea set is covered
with illustrations depicting the one of a kind of tale about.… Lenin.
Russian writer Pavel Bazhov, famous for his collection
of Ural tales known as "The Malachite Casket,
"which won him a prestigious Stalin award,
wrote a tale about Lenin in a folklore style,
describing historical events
in a linguistic style used in the oral folklore tradition.
Writer Pavel Bazhov, January 1949
This story titled "The Giant's Mitten"
describes the riches of the Urals and the “hero" who
came to use them for the benefit of the people.
Every item of the tea set
carries each scene from Bazhov's tale.
The story in porcelaine was created by
Palekh miniture artist Maria Pershina
who worked at the Baranovka porcelain
factory in Ukraine.
Apart from the illustrations of the story, the
pieces of the set carry explanatory notes – short
fragments of the tale as rendered by the artist.
As the tea set was supposed to be
gifted to Stalin, the author introduced another
character to the original story,
"leader of all nations" himself as Stalin was called.
This is how the story concludes on the last cup of this tea set,
"Soviet science has reached the most remote corners of the Ural mountains.
And now it is never failing Joseph Stalin who is leading the nation in the footsteps of Lenin."