Daria Khristova nee Chernenko
Department Director
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Lot 153*
A magnificent silver-gilt, cloisonné and plique-à-jour enamel tankardPavel Ovchinnikov, Moscow, pre 1898
7 June 2017, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£60,000 - £80,000
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A magnificent silver-gilt, cloisonné and plique-à-jour enamel tankard
Pavel Ovchinnikov, Moscow, pre 1898
of octagonal form, the lower half divided into arched panels separated with twisted columns and enameled with stylized flowers in brightly coloured cloisonné enamel on stippled gilt ground, the upper half with conforming flowers against a green ground, the domed, slip-on lid with pierced upright border and a ball finial, the base is set with a brightly colored vignette in plique-à-jour enamel depicting an eagle vanquishing a serpent, 88 standard
height: 20.5cm (8 1/8in).
of octagonal form, the lower half divided into arched panels separated with twisted columns and enameled with stylized flowers in brightly coloured cloisonné enamel on stippled gilt ground, the upper half with conforming flowers against a green ground, the domed, slip-on lid with pierced upright border and a ball finial, the base is set with a brightly colored vignette in plique-à-jour enamel depicting an eagle vanquishing a serpent, 88 standard
height: 20.5cm (8 1/8in).
Footnotes
The source for the design of this tankard was a Turkish-made enamel tankard with a coiled-serpent handle that had been presented to the Tsar of Muscovy and had been preserved in the Kremlin Armory. Fedor Solntsev included it in his magisterial compendium of the Antiquities of the Russian State (Drevnosti rossiiskogo gosudarstva), published in 1849-1853 (see volume 5, no. 31). Goldsmiths studied the plates as a source for new designs. Sazikov produced an earlier, simpler design by 1867, but Ovchinnikov's masters were able to include panels of plique-à-jour enamel requiring far greater effort and expense.
A comparable example is in the Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore. Two similar examples are described and illustrated in Anne Odom, Russian enamels. Kievan Rus to Fabergé, The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1996, pages 120-123.