The Kiev Experimental Artistic-Ceramics Works

The Kiev experimental artistic-ceramic works, (later known as “Kiev porcelain Ltd”), was founded on the 17th of September 1924.
Initially it was no more than a small workshop producing ceramic paints and was the first workshop in the USSR producing porcelain/ faience paints domestically.

The workshop rapidly developed and soon the production of decals was mastered. These decals were used to transfer designs to tableware. In 1925 the original workshop became a proper factory. And at the same time an art studio making and painting porcelain and faience was opened.

In 1945 a new art goods workshop was added to the existing paint and lithographic workshops. The highly artistic goods manufactured in this new workshop were the forerunners of the colourful ceramic figurines produced by the modern Kiev works.

From that modest beginning the Kiev porcelain works grew to become one of the leading producers of its field.

More than 40 % of porcelain production, which was exported by the USSR, was produced by Ukrainian enterprises, and products from the “Kiev Porcelain factory” accounted for 10 % of those exports. Until 2005, when the factory finally closed, this enterprise was one of the greatest amongst Ukrainian producers of vases, sculpture, and decorative goods. Its productions were exported to Russia, Great Britain, Spain, Germany and some countries of the Near East.

They also find their way regularly to Australia and USA, as Ukrainian ex pats migrate to new communities.

The factory produced pigments, fluxes for porcelain, paints, and glazes, paints for glass, enamels, ceramic overglaze and underglaze paints for porcelain, faience, decorative ceramics, majolica, facing tiles, glass and enamel. All the paints were chemical-resistant; and designed to maintain full depth and hue of colour after firing. To producers of building ceramics “Kiev Porcelain Ltd” offered paints, which allowed considerable diversity in the colour spectrum of sanitary engineering products, ceramic tiles, bricks and other finishing materials.

The Kiev Porcelain Ltd factory worked in the field of decal printing for over fifty years. Till 1991 the enterprise had produced decals for practically all the porcelain works of Ukraine. And right up to the end of the factory’s life, it was possible to produce decals to order for the decoration of porcelain, enamel, glass, ceramics and other glazed surfaces. A flow blue was also printed there. The printing of decals for porcelain and glass was mastered at the works early in its history and more recently they started printing decals of hot and cold transfer for textiles – for advertising purposes, for decoration of sports clothes and children’s clothes.

The porcelain production of the enterprise specialized in manufacture of souvenir goods and household tableware. The range of products included more than 60 kinds of sculpture of national, theatre, fairy and other themes; more than 20 forms of vases with different kinds of painting; about 50 kinds of artistic and household tableware including cups, teapots, beer glasses, sets, salad-bowls, dishes, etc.

The “Kiev porcelain Ltd” also took orders for the manufacture of souvenirs for advertising campaigns or presentations, personalised and customised tableware or souvenirs for offices. They made ceramic flasks for beverages of the Trade Mark “Getman” and “Evans”, souvenir planes for the “Aerosvit” company, mugs with a logotype of the trade mark “Jokey” coffee, TV program “Lotto Zabava”, radio stations “Russkoe radio” and “Dinamit”, sets for the CB “Privatbank”, souvenir table medallions of the Moscow Great theatre…. All of these were made by the ceramics masters at “Kiev porcelain Ltd”.

And these, often small run, commercial items form a complete collecting field in themselves.



Time line
1924 Ceramics colours workshop founded in Kiev.
1925 -1945 Early Kiev art studio wares manufactured. *
1945 A new art goods workshop started. ∞
1945-1991 Kiev porcelain Soviet manufactured figures. §
1991-2005 Post Soviet production; includes a few original , (I.e. models designed post Soviet), sculptures.




* These are probably the faience wares, (including figures, such as the tall skater girl), with the ‘double K’ mark. (seen below)




Kiev 1925-1945 (faience figurines and porcelain tableware)


I have seen this mark on;
a) the tall skater girl, (faience body),
b) a boy with boots, (hard to find faience figure).






∞ The first mark attributed to figures from the modern Kiev factory is usually spoken of as being used ‘from the fifties’. It appears it is more likely this mark was used from the beginning on wares made at the new art goods workshop. This means it would date from 1945.


The mark is a circular symbol with the word Kiev running across the middle in script. It can sometimes be found with the export mark “made in USSR” as well. I have only seen it in red.

I have seen it on;
a) the boy on a rocking horse, (more commonly from the Polonne factory),
b) the girl runner tying her shoes (also more commonly from the Polonne factory)
c) the Indian woman preparing food with pestle.





§ The K mark inside a box shape was used on both domestic and export wares. It appears in blue, red and orange.
On some experimental wares it appears with the box sides in outline. It is more commonly seen with the box sides filled with colour.

The mark occurs in orange both with and without the export mark of ‘made in USSR’. I have never seen it in blue with the ‘made in USSR’ addition, which seems to confirm that blue is usually reserved for the marks on domestic market pieces.

The mark used at the Kiev factory during the 70s 80s and 90s and therefore Soviet as well as post Soviet is the familiar single K as an outline letter. This mark occurs in red and blue. The blue varies from bright to pale blue. And it appears the paler blue mark is later.



From about 2002 the mark changed again and this last mark used by the factory is found in a turquoise blue and in red. Again the red was used for export items.



Kiev 2003-2005 (porcelain figurines and tableware)

The mark (seen above) is usually much smaller than the more familiar K marks and consists of a monogram of a Cyrillic K and F for Kievsky Farfor, (Kiev Porcelain). The tail of the ‘F’ swirls round to form a circle. Below this are two lines of Cyrillic capitals saying ‘Kiebskii FarFor’.