Lot Essay
These impressive and sober pieces marry the Russian love of colorful stones with gilded and precisely chased ormolu mounts. The sturdy, almost monumental feeling ormolu supports are echoed in many Russian Empire pieces in ormolu as well as other materials. A similar gilt porcelain example of this support appears in the Babigon service made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, 1824, and now in the State History Museum, Moscow (A. Gaydamak, Russian Empire: Architecture, Decorative and Applied Arts, Interior Decoration: 1800-1830, Moscow, 2000, p. 190).