The Bakhmet'ev Glasshouse at Nikolsko, near St. Petersburg, was founded by Aleksandr Bakhmet'ev in 1763 and continued to be run by the same aristocrat family for three generations. Aleksandr Petrovich Vershinin, a 'serf craftsman' is recorded as having worked at this Glasshouse during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A tumbler similar to the present example, bearing his signature and the date 1802, is to be found at the Bakhmet'ev Glasshouse Museum suggesting that this rare small group of double-walled beakers, with the decoration incorporating natural elements, was personally executed by Vershinin and intended as individual presents probably to members of the nobility. Cf. E.V. Dolgikh, Russian Glass of the XVIII Century. Collection of the State Ceramic Museum and Kuskova Estate, col. pl. 120, no. 172 and col. pl. 121 (detail), ' Russian Glass of the 17th - 20th Centuries', Exhibition Catalogue, Corning Museum of Glass, 1990, p. 80, no. 27 and for a covered example see 'Glass of 5 Centuries', Exhibition Catalogue, Glasgalerie Michael Kovacek, 1993, p. 126, no. 85