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Lot Essay
THE EKATERINOSLAV SERVICE
The Ekaterinoslav Service, from which the Riahi dish and cover almost certainly originate, is just one of many services which Baron A. de Foelkersam records in his Inventaire de l'Argenterie conservé dans les garde-meubles des Palais Impériaux, published in St. Petersburg in 1907. In his Inventaire are listed two large dishes which weigh a total of 14 funts 40 zolotniks (which converts as 2,941 grams each). Foelkersam goes on to note that Catherine the Great's secretary A.V. Khrapovitskii mentions in his diary, edited and published by N. Barsukov in 1874, 13 services, among them ones for Ekaterinoslav, Nizhnyi Novgorod, Kazan, Moscow, Iaroslavl, Tula, St. Petersburg, Perm, Riga, Tver and Kharkov. These services carried out the dual purpose of displaying Catherine the Great's power, authority and wealth, while also, according to Foelkersam, avoiding the expense and risk of shipping extensive silver services for her use during her travels around Russia.
While several of the services were ordered from Paris, such as the present example, others were ordered from London and Augsburg, and most were added to by Russian silversmiths. The French services would have been of the highest grade of silver and as such would have been the most expensive, while the services made in Augsburg would have been cheaper, as the standard of the metal used there was lower than that used in Paris or London. Other pieces are known from the Ekaterinoslav service by differing makers, such as an oval dish by Louis-Joseph Lenhendrick (sold Christie's, Paris, 14 December 2004, lot 387). It can be assumed that the service was made under the direction of a single retailer who had been given the commission by the Russian court on behalf of Catherine the Great. A cover of identical design is in the collection of the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg (B. Kommer, Zirbelnuss und Zarenadler, Augsburger Silber für Katharina II von Russland, Munich, 1997, p. 75, fig. 25).
The Ekaterinoslav Service, from which the Riahi dish and cover almost certainly originate, is just one of many services which Baron A. de Foelkersam records in his Inventaire de l'Argenterie conservé dans les garde-meubles des Palais Impériaux, published in St. Petersburg in 1907. In his Inventaire are listed two large dishes which weigh a total of 14 funts 40 zolotniks (which converts as 2,941 grams each). Foelkersam goes on to note that Catherine the Great's secretary A.V. Khrapovitskii mentions in his diary, edited and published by N. Barsukov in 1874, 13 services, among them ones for Ekaterinoslav, Nizhnyi Novgorod, Kazan, Moscow, Iaroslavl, Tula, St. Petersburg, Perm, Riga, Tver and Kharkov. These services carried out the dual purpose of displaying Catherine the Great's power, authority and wealth, while also, according to Foelkersam, avoiding the expense and risk of shipping extensive silver services for her use during her travels around Russia.
While several of the services were ordered from Paris, such as the present example, others were ordered from London and Augsburg, and most were added to by Russian silversmiths. The French services would have been of the highest grade of silver and as such would have been the most expensive, while the services made in Augsburg would have been cheaper, as the standard of the metal used there was lower than that used in Paris or London. Other pieces are known from the Ekaterinoslav service by differing makers, such as an oval dish by Louis-Joseph Lenhendrick (sold Christie's, Paris, 14 December 2004, lot 387). It can be assumed that the service was made under the direction of a single retailer who had been given the commission by the Russian court on behalf of Catherine the Great. A cover of identical design is in the collection of the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg (B. Kommer, Zirbelnuss und Zarenadler, Augsburger Silber für Katharina II von Russland, Munich, 1997, p. 75, fig. 25).