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Lot Essay
This pair of silver-gilt verrières is one of the six in the Moscow service, the last of the twenty-two gubernatorial services commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great. Designed for forty settings and weighing a total of 2351 mark. 4 oz. 3g, approximatively 575.55 kg, for a total cost of 232,200 livres, it was the last of the four services made by Robert-Joseph Auguste and was delivered in 1782-1783.
Empress Catherine the Great ordered a series of monumental silver table services, known today as the Gubernatorial Services for the principal administrative capitals of the Russian Empire. Their purpose was both practical and political: each governor's palace was to possess a complete silver service suitable for hosting the Empress during her travels, avoiding the expense and risk of transporting large quantities of court silver across the Empire. With the retirement of Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers in 1777, who had made, with his son the famous Orloff service, Empress Catherine the Great turned to Robert-Joseph Auguste (1723-1805), who was then the most celebrated Parisian goldsmith.
Born at Mons in 1723, Auguste entered his master's mark in 1757 after a lengthy apprenticeship. He quickly established a reputation for exceptional technical skill and artistic originality, which saw him appointed orfèvre ordinaire du roi in 1778 after producing the regalia for the coronation of Louis XVI, as well as attracting an international clientele, which included the royal courts of Denmark, Sweden, Hanover, Portugal and Russia.
Empress Catherine the Great became one of Auguste's most important patrons as he supplied, between 1776 and 1783, four gubernatorial services: Ekaterinoslav (1776–78), Kazan (1778–79), Nizhny Novgorod (1778–79) and finally Moscow (1782–83) all made in the neoclassical taste that would come to define Auguste's style.
Her correspondence with her agent, Friedrich Melchior Grimm, describes the design process and the empress' preference for restrained, architectural forms to which Auguste responded with classical compositions combined with exceptional sculptural precision.
The Moscow Service is considered one of the most fully developed of the Russian gubernatorial services and is well documented in Baron A. de Foelkersam's inventory. The verrières are listed under 'Ct. 182' with a total weight for the six as 17 lb and 29 z. engraved with 'No 23' (see. Foelkersam, vol. II, p. 167).
A matching pair, bearing the same inventory numbers are in the Louvre (OA 9687) from the collection of Louis-Victor Puifrorcat-Tabouret and are with our verrières amongst the last survivors of this extraordinary service.
These verrières exemplify Auguste's mastery of the neoclassical idiom and the extraordinary quality of the silver commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great for her imperial court.
Empress Catherine the Great ordered a series of monumental silver table services, known today as the Gubernatorial Services for the principal administrative capitals of the Russian Empire. Their purpose was both practical and political: each governor's palace was to possess a complete silver service suitable for hosting the Empress during her travels, avoiding the expense and risk of transporting large quantities of court silver across the Empire. With the retirement of Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers in 1777, who had made, with his son the famous Orloff service, Empress Catherine the Great turned to Robert-Joseph Auguste (1723-1805), who was then the most celebrated Parisian goldsmith.
Born at Mons in 1723, Auguste entered his master's mark in 1757 after a lengthy apprenticeship. He quickly established a reputation for exceptional technical skill and artistic originality, which saw him appointed orfèvre ordinaire du roi in 1778 after producing the regalia for the coronation of Louis XVI, as well as attracting an international clientele, which included the royal courts of Denmark, Sweden, Hanover, Portugal and Russia.
Empress Catherine the Great became one of Auguste's most important patrons as he supplied, between 1776 and 1783, four gubernatorial services: Ekaterinoslav (1776–78), Kazan (1778–79), Nizhny Novgorod (1778–79) and finally Moscow (1782–83) all made in the neoclassical taste that would come to define Auguste's style.
Her correspondence with her agent, Friedrich Melchior Grimm, describes the design process and the empress' preference for restrained, architectural forms to which Auguste responded with classical compositions combined with exceptional sculptural precision.
The Moscow Service is considered one of the most fully developed of the Russian gubernatorial services and is well documented in Baron A. de Foelkersam's inventory. The verrières are listed under 'Ct. 182' with a total weight for the six as 17 lb and 29 z. engraved with 'No 23' (see. Foelkersam, vol. II, p. 167).
A matching pair, bearing the same inventory numbers are in the Louvre (OA 9687) from the collection of Louis-Victor Puifrorcat-Tabouret and are with our verrières amongst the last survivors of this extraordinary service.
These verrières exemplify Auguste's mastery of the neoclassical idiom and the extraordinary quality of the silver commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great for her imperial court.