The Russian porcelain figure in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. .

One of the distinctive characteristics of Russian decorative arts of the nineteenth century is the number and diversity of porcelain figures produced. It is immediately clear that these figures almost obsessively explored Russian national identity politics, and cultural life through the depiction of the peasantry the ethnic groups inhabiting the vast Russian empire, and the familiar figures from the streets of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Based on the number of Russian figures in antiques shops in Europe and the United States, production must have been staggering. Yet despite their profusion and evident popularity these figures have received little scholarly attention.