A PARCEL-GILT SILVER AND NIELLO DISH
Lot 185 PROPERTY FROM THE KNOX COLLECTION OF ALMA COLLEGE, PROCEEDS TO GO TO THE ANNIE REID KNOX FUND

A PARCEL-GILT SILVER AND NIELLO DISH

RUSSIA, 17TH CENTURY

Closed23 November 2020

Price Realised

GBP 17,500

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A PARCEL-GILT SILVER AND NIELLO DISH
RUSSIA, 17TH CENTURY
Circular, the cavetto engraved with a gilt flower, the border engraved with scrolling flowers amidst nielloed foliage in the Turkish style, centring an escutcheon at the top, within a wirework gilt rim, apparently unmarked, engraved with Cyrillic letters 'V.F.S.T.O.' under base
8 3/8 in. (21.2 cm.) diameter
7.3 oz. (227gr.) gross

Acquired by Frank and Annie Knox in Russia in 1934.

Specialist note

The subtle use of a black niello background in the form of minute scrolls and foliage on the present dish, is typical of seventeenth-century Russian niello work. The technique, called Turkish niello, was originally used by Turkish silversmiths in the Kremlin workshops.

For almost identical dishes, see S.Ya. Kovarskaya, Russian Silver of the Fourteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries from the Moscow Kremlin Reserves, Moscow, 1984, p. 27, no. 15, and M. Hofmann, Argenterie Russe Ancienne de la Collection Eugene Lubovitch, Paris, 1932, pl. XV, no. 1.