A RARE SILVER-GILT AND EN PLEIN ENAMEL BOWL

This rare enamel-decorated bowl from Solvychegodsk dates from the late 17th century. The golden age of Solvychegodsk enamel was the 1690s. A special feature of the local enamelling tradition was the white background. The contours and lines were applied in black, and the design was then painted in vari-coloured bright enamels. Drawings were usually based on genre scenes from popular lubok prints or biblical and allegorical subjects from albums of engravings.

For comparable bowls from the Hermitage Museum, see N. V. Kalyazina, Russian Enamels of the XII-XX Centuries from the Collection of the State Hermitage, Leningrad, 1987, nos. 54-60.
A similar Solvychegodsk bowl from the collection of Prince S.D. Gorchakov was sold Christie's, London, 2 June 2014, lot 374.