Lot Essay
The present pair of clear and cobalt blue glass tazze relate to a centrepiece from the 'Gothic' service probably designed by Ivan Alekseevich Ivanov for the Imperial Glass Works, circa 1830, in the State History Museum, Moscow (see Dr. N. Asharina et al., Russian Glass of the 17th-20th Centuries, The Corning Museum of Glass, New York, 1990, p.91, fig.41). Ivanov was the main designer at the Imperial Glass Factory between 1819 and 1848 and responsible for most of the designs for coloured glass or crystal pieces executed for the Imperial family (N. Thon (ed.), St. Petersburg un 1800, Recklinghausen, 1990, pp. 395 and 398, no. 344). A related centrepiece was sold Christie's, London, 22 September 2011, lot 3.