AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE pair of antique porcelain plates finely painted with portraits of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, circa 1896, by Joseph Ahne (1830-1909) who operated a porcelain and glass decorating studio in Steinschönau, Bohemia and painted in the style of Italian and German artists of the Romantic period.

Diameter 8 1/4 in. (21 cm).

Originally, these decorative (cabinet) plates were intended for display only. Knife cut marks and some rubbing indicate that the plates were used as tableware, perhaps, during the 1917 revolution.

Both plates are signed Ahne.

Impressed factory mark ‘F & M’ for Fischer & Mieg (Bohemia).