Live Auction 11997Russian Art
A PARCEL-GILT SILVER IMPERIAL PRESENTATION KOVSH
Lot 371

A PARCEL-GILT SILVER IMPERIAL PRESENTATION KOVSH

PROBABLY MOSCOW, 1693

Closed28 November 2016

Price Realised

GBP 60,000

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A PARCEL-GILT SILVER IMPERIAL PRESENTATION KOVSH

PROBABLY MOSCOW, 1693
The bowl centring a circular reserve engraved with an Imperial double-headed eagle, the handle engraved with a floral motif, the exterior sides engraved with Old Russian dedication inscription 'By the Grace of God we great Lord Tsars and Great Princes Ioann Alekseevich and Petr Alekseevich of all Great, Little and White Russia, presented this kovsh to Stolnik Kuzma Ivanovich Voevodskii for the development of the town of Dorogobuzh', with the cone-shaped finial, unmarked, the underside of the handle engraved with a date '1693', the base engraved with weight '85 zolotniki'
11 in. (28 cm.) long
11.04 oz. (343.3 gr.)

Monsieur Eugène Lubovitch, Paris.
Property of a Gentleman; Sotheby's, Zurich, 22 November 1978, lot 38.

Specialist note

The town of Dorogobuzh, near Smolensk, became part of Russian Empire in 1667. It is known that Kuzma Voevodskii served as a head of Dorogobuzh (voevoda) in 1686.

The design of the Imperial crest with one crown instead of three has been attributed to the work of Polish silversmiths, employed by the Kremlin workshops.  It has been suggested that their works were engraved with this variation of the Imperial crest for a period of twenty years.