First half of the 19th century. Clay, toning. The relief plaquette Ceizikas in Prison is an autobiographical work which the artist created while in prison; the artist Ignotas Ceizikas (Ignacy Julian Cejzych, Ceyzik), was a descendant of Lithuanian nobles who had been imprisoned for counterfeiting money. This ingenious counterfeiter flooded the local market with fake money, causing significant problems for the imperial Russian authorities in the first half of the 19th century. Incidentally, his money looked so real that it proved to be simpler to take the originals out of circulation than to try outlawing the fakes.
Ceizikas became interested in banknote production in 1811 while living in Slutsk, having first studied drawing, painting, chemisty and history at Vilnius University; while working in Slutsk as a calligrapher he would also produce forged tickets to the city theatre. At first his brother and brother-in-law helped him in his money production business, both of them handling the logistics side. When the counterfeiters were tracked down and arrested, officers found more than 60,000 counterfeit banknotes at his house.
Having been arrested several times for counterfeiting and sent to prison in Siberia, Ceizikas had managed to escape on a few occasions, but as soon as his handcuffs were off, he would return to printing his counterfeited roubles. It is thought that the artist took up this activity not out of a desire to become rich but in the hope of bringing about the collapse of the Russian Empire’s economy.
Ceizikas experienced only the minimum of suffering at the Siberian katorga (penal labour) mines – upon noticing the artist’s exceptional talent, he was allowed to engage in creative pursuits at the Tobolsk and Buryatia prisons. The artist’s works were bought by the highest-ranked officials in Siberia and representatives of the cultural elite, while the art collector and philanthropist Piotr Moshinsky provided Ceizikas with a 300-rouble annual pension, thereby hoping to convince the talented artist to forget his criminal activities and devote himself to creating art instead.
One of the secrets of Ceizikas’ creative success was a new pottery technique he created, resulting in products that looked as if they were made of black stone or some special kind of resin. In those times, such pottery was practically unique – it could perhaps be compared to the famous British Wedgwood manufactory’s black basalt ware, which started being produced only somewhat earlier. Ceizikas was offered 15,000 roubles to reveal the recipe for this kind of pottery ware, but he declined.
After his death, the value of Ceizikas’ works only increased. Ironically, his pottery items ended up being falsified en masse in the Transbaikal region and were sold as originals.