A FINE CHINESE EXPORT SILVER-GILT AND SILVER FILIGREE CASKET

Catherine the Great, who shared the same fascination with Chinoiserie as other European monarchs, owned seven caskets of similar form as part of her dressing plate. Two of these closely related caskets, now at the Hermitage, are illustrated in Mikhail B. Piotrovski, Treasures of Catherine the Great, State Hermitage Museum, ex. cat., Somerset House, 2000, illus. p. 218. Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, also owned filigree pieces, including "A frame for a toilet glass, of silver filigree" (Christie's, 17-18 May, 1819, lot 90, as cited in Piotrovski, op. cit., p. 211).