AMSTERDAM, 1666, MAKER'S MARK A MONOGRAM

Grigorii Dimitrievich Stroganov was born in 1656, scion of the immensely rich merchant family who financed the conquest of Siberia. He went to Moscow on the birth of Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, later Peter I, known as Peter the Great. In 1682 Peter and his co-Tsar Ivan requested the first of many loans from the Stroganov family. This was to be the start of Stroganov's long career as loyal servant to the Russian Imperial family. When he came to his many inheritances, from other branches of the family, he owned nearly 45,000 serfs. He married first Vassa Ivanovna Meshcherskaia, and after her death Maria Iakovlevna Novosil'tseva. Their children, including the second son Nikolai who was Peter's god-son, were created barons in 1722 on Peter the Great's 50th birthday. Peter the Great undertook a tour of Europe in 1697-98 which was known as his 'Grand Embassy', visiting The Netherlands, England and France. This beaker was perhaps purchased on that trip and given to Stroganov on his return for an event such as becoming godfather to Nikolai in 1700. Stroganov died on 21 November 1715.

For a similar beaker by the German born maker Lucas Draef see J.W. Fredricks, Dutch Silver, The Hague, 1952, pl. 118. Fredricks comments on 'the eminent talent of this master in the treatment of flowers' as well as the similarities of the present example to the example cited above make it conceivable that this is a previously unrecorded maker's mark for Draef.