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Lot Essay
Such large chargers were offered on the coronation days of Emperors Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II by visiting provincial dignitaries who presented the Emperor with bread and salt in an elaborate ceremony held in the Kremlin Palace. Of traditional circular form, the chargers vary in design and were by the leading silversmiths and jewellers of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
For another silver and enamel charger, by the firm of Sazikov, presented at the coronation of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, see Christie’s, London, 6 June 2011, lot 233. Another example, also by Ovchinnikov, is held in the collection of the Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C. See A. Odom and L.P. Arend, exhibition catalogue, A Taste for Splendor, Russian Imperial and European Treasures from the Hillwood Museum, Alexandria, Virginia, 1998, No. 160, pp. 290-291. For further examples, see N. Chakirov, Illustrated History of the Russian Empire, Moscow, 1971, pp. 398-409.
For another silver and enamel charger, by the firm of Sazikov, presented at the coronation of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, see Christie’s, London, 6 June 2011, lot 233. Another example, also by Ovchinnikov, is held in the collection of the Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C. See A. Odom and L.P. Arend, exhibition catalogue, A Taste for Splendor, Russian Imperial and European Treasures from the Hillwood Museum, Alexandria, Virginia, 1998, No. 160, pp. 290-291. For further examples, see N. Chakirov, Illustrated History of the Russian Empire, Moscow, 1971, pp. 398-409.