Design for a Russian child's handkerchief with decorated border, showing multiplication tables up to the 19 times table, a schoolteacher and two schoolchildren, by Prokhorovskaia Trekhgornia Workshop Association, ca.1903

Design for a child's educational handkerchief with a decorated border, showing multiplication tables and images of a schoolteacher and pupils.

The Russian textile firm Prokhorovskaia Trekhgornia Manufaktura was founded in Moscow by Vassily Ivanovich Prokhorov in 1799. By the end of the next century it was one of the leading textile firms in Russia, winning medals at international exhibitions for high quality textiles. The firm employed the finest designers both in Russia and abroad, especially in France. Amongst the Russian designers were A.N.Medvedskiy, L.P.Khrapunov and N.I.Cherepovkiy. The Prokhorovskaia factory was nationalised in 1918 but continued to produce finely designed textiles until 1931-32 when the fundamental archives of the factory were destroyed as not corresponding to the Communist ideology. Shortly afterwards the Company Drawing Shop which had, for many years, been under O.P.Green (Grune) (1874-1931) was also closed.

E.150-1998