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Lot Essay
THE PERM SERVICE
Perm was one of the principal administrative and industrial centres established during the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Ural region. Situated on the western slopes of the Ural Mountains along the Kama River, Perm emerged in the early eighteenth century as part of Peter the Great's programme to exploit the region's vast mineral resources. Rich deposits of copper and other metals, together with extensive forests and abundant water, enabled the development of large-scale smelting and manufacturing works. The settlement originated around the Egoshikha copper works, founded in 1723 under the direction of the military engineer Georg Wilhelm de Gennin and the statesman Vasily Tatishchev. Its strategic importance continued to grow throughout the century, and by a decree of 20 November 1780, Empress Catherine the Great elevated Perm to the status of a provincial capital, making it the administrative centre of a vast territory extending across the Urals.
It was in this context of imperial administration and regional development that the magnificent silver service was commissioned for Perm to be used at the governor's residence, to symbolise both imperial authority and the integration of this distant region into the administrative structure of the Russian Empire.
The Perm service, executed between 1779 and 1781, was entrusted to Augsburg goldsmiths. As with other gubernatorial services commissioned for Empress Catherine the Great's provincial capitals, production was divided among a number of workshops, resulting in a remarkable collaborative achievement by the foremost goldsmiths and silversmiths of late eighteenth-century Augsburg, including Johann Philipp Heckenhauer, Johann Wilhelm Dammann, Sebald Henrich Blau and Emanuel Gottfried Meisgeyer (see Lot 142).
Made in the neoclassical style promoted by Louis XVI and the court of Versailles and favoured by Empress Catherine the Great, and like the other gubernatorial services, it symbolised both the authority of the Crown and the integration of the empire's distant territories into a unified administrative system. The service stood as a visible expression of imperial patronage and of Empress Catherine the Great's reforms, which sought to strengthen governance throughout Russia's expanding provinces.
Perm was one of the principal administrative and industrial centres established during the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Ural region. Situated on the western slopes of the Ural Mountains along the Kama River, Perm emerged in the early eighteenth century as part of Peter the Great's programme to exploit the region's vast mineral resources. Rich deposits of copper and other metals, together with extensive forests and abundant water, enabled the development of large-scale smelting and manufacturing works. The settlement originated around the Egoshikha copper works, founded in 1723 under the direction of the military engineer Georg Wilhelm de Gennin and the statesman Vasily Tatishchev. Its strategic importance continued to grow throughout the century, and by a decree of 20 November 1780, Empress Catherine the Great elevated Perm to the status of a provincial capital, making it the administrative centre of a vast territory extending across the Urals.
It was in this context of imperial administration and regional development that the magnificent silver service was commissioned for Perm to be used at the governor's residence, to symbolise both imperial authority and the integration of this distant region into the administrative structure of the Russian Empire.
The Perm service, executed between 1779 and 1781, was entrusted to Augsburg goldsmiths. As with other gubernatorial services commissioned for Empress Catherine the Great's provincial capitals, production was divided among a number of workshops, resulting in a remarkable collaborative achievement by the foremost goldsmiths and silversmiths of late eighteenth-century Augsburg, including Johann Philipp Heckenhauer, Johann Wilhelm Dammann, Sebald Henrich Blau and Emanuel Gottfried Meisgeyer (see Lot 142).
Made in the neoclassical style promoted by Louis XVI and the court of Versailles and favoured by Empress Catherine the Great, and like the other gubernatorial services, it symbolised both the authority of the Crown and the integration of the empire's distant territories into a unified administrative system. The service stood as a visible expression of imperial patronage and of Empress Catherine the Great's reforms, which sought to strengthen governance throughout Russia's expanding provinces.