.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These plates were made as later replacements for the original Meissen service which was given by the Saxon Elector Augustus II (King Augustus III of Poland) to Elizabeth I Petrovna on the occasion of the marriage of her nephew, Grand Prince Peter Fedorovich, later Peter III, to Sophie-Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst, later Catherine II Alekseevna (Catherine The Great, Empress of Russia 1762-1796).
Some 440 pieces of the original service are listed in an inventory (dated 5th November 1745) of chattels belonging to the Imperial household of St. Petersburg, and 145 pieces are still in the Hermitage. For a discussion of the service and an example of an 18th century plate from this service see D. Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, Katalog der Sammlung Hoffmeister, Hamburg, 2000, Vol. II., pp. 546-547, no. 363 and pp. 572-574.
The Order of St. Andrew, the highest of all Russian Imperial Orders, was founded in 1698 by Peter the Great, and the cross is a simplified version of the Order's badge; depicted without the black double-headed eagle that usually accompanies it, and St. Andrew is also depicted without a halo. The letters at each end of the cross, S, A, P and R are an abbreviation of Sanctus Andreas Patronus Russiae.
Some 440 pieces of the original service are listed in an inventory (dated 5th November 1745) of chattels belonging to the Imperial household of St. Petersburg, and 145 pieces are still in the Hermitage. For a discussion of the service and an example of an 18th century plate from this service see D. Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, Katalog der Sammlung Hoffmeister, Hamburg, 2000, Vol. II., pp. 546-547, no. 363 and pp. 572-574.
The Order of St. Andrew, the highest of all Russian Imperial Orders, was founded in 1698 by Peter the Great, and the cross is a simplified version of the Order's badge; depicted without the black double-headed eagle that usually accompanies it, and St. Andrew is also depicted without a halo. The letters at each end of the cross, S, A, P and R are an abbreviation of Sanctus Andreas Patronus Russiae.