BY THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY, PERIOD OF CATHERINE II, CIRCA 1795

In 1793, Empress Catherine II commissioned one of the most important services produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory as a gift for her chief minister, Count Aleksandr Bezborodko (1747-1799). Numbering more than 900 pieces for serving dinner, dessert, and tea, the service was painted with Italianate views within polychrome floral borders on a white ground. Some of the larger pieces, such as baskets and centerpieces, were not painted with views. The service was nearly complete by the time of Bezborodko's death in 1799, after which time it was transferred to the crown and later acquired the name Cabinet Service. Some important services that followed, such as the dowry services of the daughters of Paul I, drew their inspiration from the Cabinet Service, both in their form and decoration.

A centrepiece of identical form to the present lot, from the Iusupov Service, is illustrated in N.B. von Wolf (ed. T.N. Nosovich), Imperatorskii farforovyi zavod, 1744-1904, St Petersburg, 2008, p. 163. For further examples from Cabinet Service, see N.B. von Wolf, op. cit., pp. 112-117.