Mid-18th Century Imperial Porcelain Plate

Catherine the Great’s cipher appears on the back of the plate. The “E” stands for Ekaterina, her Russian name.
photography by Marc Montoya, Tinkerboxstudio

Who: Will Kolb, expert collector of Imperial Russian relics and outside salesperson for Sherle Wagner International
What: Mid-18th century Imperial porcelain plate from Catherine the Great’s personal, everyday service.
Where: Discovered on eBay
For a mere: $123
Would sell at auction for: $2,000-$8,000
Back story: Will Kolb scours online auctions in search of Imperial Russian pieces, and he’s very good at it. Kolb visits the well-known sellers, yes, but he also searches for items using common misspellings and other mistakes, which is how he found a German fellow willing to part with an exceptional example of Catherine the Great’s personal china. Kolb says, “He’d misspelled ‘St. Petersburg,’ and he really didn’t know what he had.” Kolb did and quickly made it the seventh plate in his collection, which also includes a soup bowl from the coronation of Nicholas II, a porcelain presentation egg given by Empress Alexandra, a menu from the coronation of Nicholas and Alexandra, and the signatures of every czar from Empress Elizabeth to Nicholas II.