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Lot Essay
THE ORLOFF SERVICE
The Orloff Service is perhaps the best known of the great services commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great from the Parisian silversmiths in the eighteenth century. Its history has been extensively documented, notably by Baron Foelkersam, Clare Le Corbeiller, Angela Kuodriavceca and Marina Lopato. Foelkersam was the first to publish correspondence between Empress Catherine the Great and the French sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet, who was then working in Russia. The correspondence demonstrates Falconet’s influence on Empress Catherine the Great’s choice of both the service’s style and its Parisian silversmiths.
Intended to serve sixty persons, the service was delivered to Empress Catherine the Great between 1771 and 1775. It comprised 2,360 pieces, including eight soup tureens, eight pots à oille and forty-eight dozen plates. The principal commission was entrusted to Roettiers, who subcontracted the production of many of the secondary pieces, including plates and dishes, to Edme-Pierre Balzac and his son-in-law Claude-Pierre Deville.
In 1772, Empress Catherine the Great presented the service to her favourite, Count Grigory Orloff, evidently as a gift of reconciliation. The pieces were delivered to him over the following years. In 1776, however, Orloff fell from favour and left Russia in exile. Following his death in 1783, Empress Catherine the Great expressed her wish to regain possession of the service and ultimately repurchased it from his heirs. It thereafter remained in the Russian Imperial collections until the Revolution of 1917.
In around 1930, numerous pieces from the service, evidently sold by the Soviet government, began to appear at auction in Berlin and through dealers, most notably the distinguished Parisian silver expert and dealer Jacques Helft.
The Orloff Service is perhaps the best known of the great services commissioned by Empress Catherine the Great from the Parisian silversmiths in the eighteenth century. Its history has been extensively documented, notably by Baron Foelkersam, Clare Le Corbeiller, Angela Kuodriavceca and Marina Lopato. Foelkersam was the first to publish correspondence between Empress Catherine the Great and the French sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet, who was then working in Russia. The correspondence demonstrates Falconet’s influence on Empress Catherine the Great’s choice of both the service’s style and its Parisian silversmiths.
Intended to serve sixty persons, the service was delivered to Empress Catherine the Great between 1771 and 1775. It comprised 2,360 pieces, including eight soup tureens, eight pots à oille and forty-eight dozen plates. The principal commission was entrusted to Roettiers, who subcontracted the production of many of the secondary pieces, including plates and dishes, to Edme-Pierre Balzac and his son-in-law Claude-Pierre Deville.
In 1772, Empress Catherine the Great presented the service to her favourite, Count Grigory Orloff, evidently as a gift of reconciliation. The pieces were delivered to him over the following years. In 1776, however, Orloff fell from favour and left Russia in exile. Following his death in 1783, Empress Catherine the Great expressed her wish to regain possession of the service and ultimately repurchased it from his heirs. It thereafter remained in the Russian Imperial collections until the Revolution of 1917.
In around 1930, numerous pieces from the service, evidently sold by the Soviet government, began to appear at auction in Berlin and through dealers, most notably the distinguished Parisian silver expert and dealer Jacques Helft.