PROBABLY HANAU, CIRCA 1780/1790, MAKER'S MARK EO CROWNED, WITH PRESTIGE MARKS RESEMBLING THE DISCHARGE MARK OF ELOY BRICHARD, DATE LETTER 1761 AND THE DISCHARGE MARK OF JULIEN BERTHE

The Treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardji signed in 1774 ended the first of the Russo-Turkish Wars undertaken by Catherine II of Russia against Sultan Mustafa III of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). It was signed at the village of Kuchuk Kainardji, now Kaynardzha in North East Bulgaria. The treaty ceded Kerch and several other Black Sea ports in the Crimea to Russia and declared the rest of the khanate of Crimea independent. Russian trading ships were accorded the same status as those from England and France and were allowed to navigate in Turkish waters. In addiction Moldavia and Walachia were restored to the suzerainty of the sultan. The treaty hastened the eventual annexation in 1783 of the Crimea and was the basis of the later claims of Russia as protector of the Christians in the Ottoman Empire.