A RUSSIAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED MALACHITE VENEERED TAZZA

The Russian vogue for stone-cutting led to the creation of beautiful objets d'art in malachite, a stalagmitic form of copper carbonate. Sawn into very thin slices, the application of the veneers on a stone or metal ground was determined by the pleasing patterns formed by the veins. A related tazza made by the Ekaterinburg lapidary workshop and dated from the second quarter of the 19th century is currently in the collection of the Hermitage (V.B. Semyonov, Malachite, Sverdlovsk, 1987, vol. I, p. 182, fig. 43).