A PARCEL-GILT SILVER AND NIELLO CUP

The subtle use of black niello background in the form of delicate lacework, minute scrolls, foliage and dots on the present cup, is typical of seventeenth-century Russian niello work. The technique, called Turkish niello [turetskaya chern’], was originally used by Turkish silversmiths in the Kremlin workshops.
For similarly nielloed examples of cups on ball feet from the late seventeenth century, please see A. Odom, Russian Silver in America: Surviving the Melting Pot, London, 2011, pp. 52-53.