Page 13 - Microsoft Word - miniz-digest-92-97.docx

Ochakovskaya

It is always nice to find some new ceramic miniatures, but even more so when they are
truly something special. Ochakovskaya is a company from Russia that I have never heard
of before they started selling these minis. Each contains 50ml of Russian vodka and are
issued as a limited edition (usually of 125).

I thought at first that there was a fairy tale theme but a few of the bottles, such as Yoda
and the aeroplane, seem not to support that. I have been trying to find out the true story
(pun intended!) and will bring you that information in a future miNiZ if I find out more.

One feature of these minis is that they are hand painted and that, on purpose, no two are
exactly the same. There is an obvious attempt with some shapes to make each one
different. This has made them hard to list on Miniature Bottle Library,
http://www.minibottlelibrary.com/mbl/alpha/ochakovskaya/index.html as normally the site
allows for painting variations. I got around that by not showing more than two of each and I
have followed that principal here also. Note that some of the painting is very clever and a
different paint job can change the character of the mini – see the castles.

I will let these bottles speak for themselves...........

Note the painting variations
between the two cockerels
above and the two with the
accordion. The hen to the left
is sitting on eggs with dollar
signs on. This reminds me of
the fairy tale of the goose
that laid the golden eggs but,
as these are Russian, this
could be a variation or simply
a totally different fairy tale. I
don’t know where the others
fit in but the accordion player
is clearly a caricature of a
dancing Cossack.