A porcelain dinner plate from the Raphael Service by the Russian Imperial Porcelain Factory,

A porcelain dinner plate from the Raphael Service by the Russian Imperial Porcelain Factory, St Petersburg, period of Alexander III, 1892. The centre decorated en grisaille with a finely painted classical figural vignette against a burnt orange ground in a hexagonal reserve. The border polychrome painted with classical friezes within jewelled surrounds interspersed with three cartouches of cherubs. Cipher of Czar Alexander III verso with 1892 date, 24.3cm diameter.The Raphael Service was commissioned by Alexander III in 1883 for the Alexander Palace, Tsarskoe Selo, St Petersburg and was inspired by Raphael's frescoes in the loggia of the Vatican. The nature of the decoration of this service meant that it was not fully completed until 1903, it was then moved to the Anichkov palace for the personal use of the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. The fifty place setting had plates in five sizes and the patterns created by Leonard Schaufelberger included mythological scenes painted en grisaille bordered by classical ornaments in vivid colours