Lot 254
  • 254

A large Russian Imperial Neoclassical Kalgan jasper tazza Imperial Lapidary Manufactory, Ekaterinburg, dated 1888

Estimate
50,000 - 80,000 USD
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Description

  • inscribed: Imperatorskaia Ekaterinskaia Granilnaia Fabrika 1888 Uprav. V. Mostovenko (The Imperial Ekaterinburg Lapidary Manufactory 1888 Director V. Mostovenko)
  • jasper
  • height 20 in.; diameter 11 in.
  • 51 cm; 28 cm

Provenance

Property of a Private Collection, Pennsylvania

Condition

With very minor chips to jasper; not extensive. In very good overall condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

This tazza is a very fine example of Russian craftsmanship and displays the artisans' great skill at cutting and polishing rare stones and marbles. The Russians were aided by the discoveries of rich deposits of semi-precious stones in the Urals and further east in Siberia. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, blocks of Korgon, porphyry, rhodonite, Kalgan and Aushkul jasper and Nevianok marble were quarried and sent to St. Petersburg to be cut and polished into objects.
The Imperial government established the first factory at Peterhof in the late eighteenth century, probably employing Italian craftsmen. Subsequently, the administration set up further factories at Ekaterinburg and Kolyvan in the Urals where the locally trained stone cutters could work larger pieces of stone. These were active through the third quarter of the nineteenth century, see Antoine Cheneviere, Russian Furniture: the Golden Age, 1780-1840, New York, 1988, p. 263, fig. 286. A pair of smaller and less elaborately carved but comparable tazze from the Collection of Suzanne Saperstein was sold Sotheby's New York, April 19, 2012, lot 17 ($290,500).
Vasily Mostovenko became general manager of the Factory in 1885 at the age of thirty-six and is credited with reviving the fortunes of the Manufactory.