A Russian gilt-bronze and cut-glass four-light lantern, mid-19th century, the glass probably from the Imperial Glassworks, St Petersburg

The present lantern is undoubtedly an impressive example of Russian craftsmanship in the mid-19^th century, not only through the design of the mounts but also for the delicate cut-glass body of the lantern which most certainly originates from the celebrated Imperial Glassworks Factory in St Petersburg.

The cut-glass body of the present with ribbed water leaves is repeated on a glass vase designed by the director of the Imperial Glass Factory (from 1815-1848) Ivan Ivanov circa 1842 in the State Hermitage Museum (illustrated in the Catalogue of the Corning Museum of Glass, p. 33), and on a chandelier circa 1815 at Palais Gatchina (illustrated in Igor Sychev, The Russian Chandeliers, 2003, no. 546, p.123). The cut-glass rosette motifs are found on a chandelier attributed to Andrei Schreiber sold at Christie’s, London, 25 November 2008, lot 37, and one a chandelier by Karl Dreyer (I. Sychev, op. cit., p. 106), both makers who seem to have pioneered in Russia the design for chandeliers and lanterns with deep-bowls.

The masks of the Medusa or Gorgone, which had become a popular decorative motif within the decorative arts from the early 19^th century when the Vatican purchased Canova’s Triumphant Perseus (a copy of which exists at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), is recorded on the frieze of a Russian coloured glass chandelier in Sychev, op. cit., no. 479, p.105. The deep bowl with bronze swags to the bronze frieze is recorded in the same book no. 433, p.99.