Lot Essay
`One of the best, if not the best, of the St. Petersburg silversmiths of the XVIII century' wrote Baron Foelkersam of Köpping (op. cit., I p. 79). The son of the St. Petersburg silversmith Claus Jacob Köpping who came to Russia from Sweden during the reign of Peter the Great, Johann Friedrich was apprenticed to his father in 1718 for seven years, and worked for him from 1740 to 1748. In that year he was accepted by the St. Petersburg Foreigners' Guild and was described as a `free master of gold work' until 1763. In 1764 he became the Court Keeper of Plate (zil'berdiner). From 1750 to 1782 he continually worked for the Imperial Court, often with Ivan Blom (op. cit. I.p. 69) and sometimes with Ivan Mironov (op. cit. I.p. 85), and the quantity of gold and silver items from his workshops was very considerable. Köpping died in 1783.
Of the Peter the Great [Petrovskii] Service, very few pieces survived to the beginning of the 20th century when Foelkersam (op. cit. vol. II. pp. 506-507) listed just two tureens with stands from the earlier, unmarked, service from the reign of Peter the Great, and four, presumably somewhat more "rococoized", tureens with stands made by Köpping. The latter, including the present example, are recorded by Foelkersam as being marked solely with Köpping's initials. All of these tureens are recorded as being `received in 1762 from Lieutenant Sel'vin (a footnote suggests that the name should read "Seniavin") from [the palace of] Oranienbaum'. Indeed the tureen is engraved "Sel" near the inventory numbers. In 1762 Catherine usurped the throne and, needing the financial security provided by the Imperial treasures to secure her position, she ordered items of value to be sent to St. Petersburg from the outlying palaces.
Among other Imperial commissions from Köpping recorded by Foelkersam are a gold salt for the Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730-40), additions to the Paris Service by F.T. Germain, and to the First and Second Travelling services used by Catherine the Great on her progresses, as well regilding the First French Service. In "the case brought in 1762 by Lieutenant [Grigorii] Pleshcheev from the Summer Palace" were ten four-branch candelabra made by Köpping in 1759, being part of a large service made for Elizabeth Petrovna. All these were stored in the Winter Palace.
Such was the value of the work undertaken by Köpping that in 1763 a guard under Lt. Ivan Möller of the Preobrazhenskii Life-Guards Regiment was placed at the house of the silversmith "under the direct supervision of the Gentleman-in-waiting Prince Golitsyn" ... "in order that it was not possible to waste silver and money" (Foelkersam, op. cit., vol. I. pp. 64-65; and also quoted by Alexander von Solodkoff in Orfèvrerie russe du XVIIe au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1981), p. 20).
Of the Peter the Great [Petrovskii] Service, very few pieces survived to the beginning of the 20th century when Foelkersam (op. cit. vol. II. pp. 506-507) listed just two tureens with stands from the earlier, unmarked, service from the reign of Peter the Great, and four, presumably somewhat more "rococoized", tureens with stands made by Köpping. The latter, including the present example, are recorded by Foelkersam as being marked solely with Köpping's initials. All of these tureens are recorded as being `received in 1762 from Lieutenant Sel'vin (a footnote suggests that the name should read "Seniavin") from [the palace of] Oranienbaum'. Indeed the tureen is engraved "Sel" near the inventory numbers. In 1762 Catherine usurped the throne and, needing the financial security provided by the Imperial treasures to secure her position, she ordered items of value to be sent to St. Petersburg from the outlying palaces.
Among other Imperial commissions from Köpping recorded by Foelkersam are a gold salt for the Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730-40), additions to the Paris Service by F.T. Germain, and to the First and Second Travelling services used by Catherine the Great on her progresses, as well regilding the First French Service. In "the case brought in 1762 by Lieutenant [Grigorii] Pleshcheev from the Summer Palace" were ten four-branch candelabra made by Köpping in 1759, being part of a large service made for Elizabeth Petrovna. All these were stored in the Winter Palace.
Such was the value of the work undertaken by Köpping that in 1763 a guard under Lt. Ivan Möller of the Preobrazhenskii Life-Guards Regiment was placed at the house of the silversmith "under the direct supervision of the Gentleman-in-waiting Prince Golitsyn" ... "in order that it was not possible to waste silver and money" (Foelkersam, op. cit., vol. I. pp. 64-65; and also quoted by Alexander von Solodkoff in Orfèvrerie russe du XVIIe au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1981), p. 20).