Georgian SSR. Tea Georgia, Ltd. - Zugdidi Factory "Tea Money" Brick of 64 Ounces ND (after 1923) XF, 358x162x35mm. 1819.6gm. Hammer and sickle emblem within oblong frame, above: СССР МПП ГРУЗССР ЧАЙ ГРУЗИА ЗУГДИДСНАЯ ФАБРИКА (USSR MPP, Georgian SSR Tea, Georgia Zugdidi Factory), similar legend in Georgian below. Almost certainly excessively rare, with remarkably few post-Revolution Soviet tea bricks surviving to the present day, not least due to their relatively poor quality of production. This is the first such tea brick produced in a Soviet Satellite Republic that we are aware of, and we note that Chinyun Lee, in his 2014 article "From Kiachta to Vladivostok: Russian Merchants and the Tea Trade" states only "[t]he Soviet government controlled the international trade, and with the demand for tea bricks produced in China, it established an office, the Centrosoius, in Shanghai, with a branch in Hankou" (pg. 216), not including any mention of tea brick production in the western regions of the USSR. This, perhaps, represents the only opportunity to obtain an example, and is not to be missed as such. In volume 1 of his 1935 work, All about Tea, William Harrison Ukers writes: "The development of tea culture is being promoted by the [Soviet] State through the granting of long-term credits to peasants in the form of money and seeds. The original seeds came from China, Japan, India and Ceylon. Today hybrid and China jats are favored. Only the poor and middle peasants are aided by money and seed credits. The organization of peasants into collective farms has shown rapid progress in the tea sections of western Georgia. Tea Georgia, Ltd., has organized two State farms, Chakva and Salibayuri. The Tea Georgia, Ltd., has established three experimental tea stations; a central station in Ozurgeti with branches in Chakva and Zugdidi. These stations are carrying on research to determine the best types of seeds and the best methods of growing...In addition, the agronomic personnel of Tea Georgia, Ltd., is investigating the natural conditions of the Black Sea coast" (pg. 463). From the Charles J. Opitz Collection

HID09801242017

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