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44 Porcelain Factory for use at Tsarskoie Selo, the imperial residence in the St. Petersburg suburbs. As described in the orders from 1903 commissioning the service, it “should be designed in Rastrelli’s style, with painted decor simple and at the same time sumptuous.” The service, the manufacture of which began in 1904, ultimately included 1,690 items, 74 of them now held by Hillwood ( g. 3). In addition to holding historic French and Russian services, Hillwood also houses a number of sets produced in Europe at the request of Marjorie Post, whose table settings were renowned for the use of historic porcelain alongside colorful modern tableware. One of them, the Turkey Service, designed in Italy to appeal to an American clientele, revisits the famed tradition of maiolica ( g. 4). RUSSIAN DECORATIVE ARTS During the 1920s, Marjorie Post acquired her rst works of art with Russian royal and aristocratic connections. However, Post’s future vision for Hillwood, developed in the late 1930s during her “pilgrimage to imperial Russia”  2 as Ambassadress. With a 1914 edition of the Baedekers guide to Russia in hand, Post explored the remains of a lost empire. More exhaustive than her French Fig. 3: Plate from the Purple Service. Imperial Porcelain Factory (Russian, 1744–present). St. Petersburg, 1905– 8. Porcelain. Gi of Eleanor Close Barzin, 1974 (25.391). Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by Edward Owen. Fig. 4: Plates from the Turkey Service. Mancioli Manufactory (Italian, 1946–present). Montelupo, Italy, 1956–57. Glazed earthenware. Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973 (27.27.3). Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, photographed by John Dean.