Vintage Nizhny Tagil Toleware Plate in Grey with Hand Painted Flowers

A little garden on a plate: this hand painted Russian toleware piece has a golden yellow bloom at its heart, ringed by pink wild roses, red rosehips and autumn leaves in apricot and rust, all set against a soft dove grey ground. The black rim is edged with a twisting garland of gold painted leaves, and every petal shows the loose, layered brushstrokes of a painter working quickly and surely by hand.

Height: 1cm (0.4in)
Diameter: 19cm (7.5in)
Weight: 150g

The back carries the flower topped mark of the Nizhny Tagil painted tray workshops in the Urals, along with a stamped Soviet price of 3 roubles and an inspector's number, which places it in the later decades of the USSR. Nizhny Tagil has been painting flowers onto iron since the eighteenth century, when the town's metalworkers began lacquering trays for merchant households, and its craft is older than the better known Zhostovo trays made near Moscow. Pieces like this were made for ordinary homes, which is a large part of their charm.

At 19cm across and just 1cm high, it is light enough to hang on a wall with a simple plate hanger. The painted face is bright and glossy, and there is a patch of worn finish and old label residue on the back, which is hidden once it is on display.

Prop it on a dresser shelf among blue and white china, hang it in a cluster with other painted plates in a kitchen or hallway, or set it on a dressing table to hold rings and earrings. Its marigold and rose palette sits beautifully with autumn colours, and at Christmas it makes a cheerful dish for a few clementines and walnuts. A lovely small present for anyone who loves folk art, and a happy companion for the other painted pieces in our Toleware & Painted Folk Art collection.