ANTIQUES UNDER THE HAMMER Russian works of art
SALEROOM SPOTLIGHT Works of art by Fabergé and other leading Russian silversmiths of the 18th and 19th centuries go under the hammer in North Yorkshire this month
Above A Russian silver-gilt and niello charka (drinking cup),
Moscow, 1768 It has an estimate of £250-£350 at this month’s sale
Fabergé and fine Russian works of art. Of particular note is a bonbonnière engraved in Cyrillic and made by Vassily Romanov of Veliki Ustyug in 1783. Other highlights include an unusually-shaped snuff box made by Vasilii Zalesov of St Petersburg in 1839. Based on traditional Russian drinking cups, it has a looped handle and hinged cover and is decorated with a coat-of-arms.
Fantastic Fabergé
A Russian silver-mounted stoneware bowl by Doulton, Lambeth dated 1879 with silver mounts by Fabergé, has an estimate of £3,000-£5,000 at this month’s sale
R
ussian silver and works of art amassed over three decades go under the hammer this month. They come from a large family collection of art and antiques, once housed in a property in St Judes on the Isle of Man, now up for sale as part of Tennants’ series of Spring sales. A selection of 18th and 19th century silver niello snuff boxes and bonbonnieres will take centre stage.
Notable niello Niello is a type of monochrome enamelling, in which a black compound of sulphur with silver, lead or copper is applied to the surface of an engraved piece of metalwork, usually silver. Mastered during the Renaissance, it then became a popular technique in Russia from the 17th to 20th centuries. All the niello pieces in the collection were inventoried by Wartski of London, leading dealers in
30 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
Far right A Russian parcel-gilt silver twohandled cup and cover by Alexei Ratikov, Moscow, 1793, assay master Andrei Titov. It has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 at this month’s sale Right A Russian parcel-
gilt silver and niello snuff box by Vasilii Zalesov, St Petersburg, 1839. It has an estimate of £1,500£2,500 at this month’s sale Below right A Russian
silver-gilt mounted birch paper knife by Fabergé, Moscow, c. 1890, later retailed by Wartski, 14 Grafton Street, London. It has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000 at this month’s sale
Unexpectedly, Fabergé is well represented in the collection, with the Russian jeweller, silver and goldsmith supplying the mounts for a stoneware bowl made by Doulton of Lambeth. Purchased from Wartski in 1999, the gourd-shaped bowl is inscribed with the potter’s initials ‘AG’ and dated 1879. Fabergé designed silver mounts for a wide range of fashionable pottery and glass in the second half of the 19th century, including Gallé. Also in the sale is a silver-gilt mounted paper-knife by Fabergé, c. 1890, with an impressive provenance. In the 1970s, the birch knife was a gift from Wartski’s managing director, Kenneth Snowman, to an important American collector whose treasures included a Fabergé gnome, which went on to sell for almost $1.4m. When the collection was dispersed at Christie’s New York, the paper-knife went to the New York dealer and Fabergé specialist, A La Vielle Russie, for $16,800. It later sold again at Christie’s London where it was purchased by Wartski for the present vendor’s family.
