BY THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY, PERIOD OF NICHOLAS I, 1833

Details

A Pair of large Porcelain Vases
by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, period of Nicholas I, 1833
Tapering cylindrical, om baluster shaped socles with ormolu oak-leaf and acorn rim on square brass bases, the tapering bodies with gilt spreading rim painted with Dutch interiors, one after the 'Oyster Eaters' by Gabriel Metsu signed and dated 'Meshcheriakov 1833' (lower right), the other of a Music Lesson signed and dated 'Golov 1833' (lower right), with acanthus and berry ormolu mount, with shaped lower portion partially moulded with acanthus leaves of burnished gilt with two ormolu-mounted handles with lion-head attachments, overall with lavish gold ciselé ornate blossom and leaf sprays on pink ground, marked inside bodies, with painted inventory numbers '4768' and '4769'; sold with two trompe-l'oeil brass-mounted stands
the vases 33½in. (85cm.) high, 24¾in. (63cm.) diam.; the stands 49 5/8in. (126cm.) high (4)

Lot Essay

Made on Imperial commission, these large vases were often decorated with copies of paintings in the Imperial collections. 'The Oyster Eaters' by Leyden-born Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) is still in the State Hermitage at St. Petersburg.

The porcelain painter Vasilii Fedorovich Meshcheriakov is recorded as an apprentice at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in 1820, and a younger master in the early years of the reign of Nicholas I and as a master, along with Golov, in the 1840s. Semen Golov is regarded as one of the best painters of the period. Baron N.B. von Wolff in his history of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, published in St. Petersburg in 1906 illustrates two of Meshcheriakov's vases (no.232 and 251, the latter with another Dutch interior), and one by Golov (no.233).

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