A Russian gilt-bronze-mounted rhodentite and nephrite tazza, after a design by Ivan Hallberg (1778-1863), probably Peterhof or Kolvyan circa 1850

of tripod form, the ovoid body with an everted rim with an egg-and-dart border and foliate finial above three nephrite tapering pilaster supports surmounted by a quatrefoil joined by a ring with a stylised Greek key motif terminating in paw feet on a circular base

Ivan Hallberg (1778-1863) was a well-known architect and applied artist who worked in groups supporting the leading St Petersburg architects such as Giacomo Quarenghi, Luigi Rusca, Carlo Rossi and Auguste Montferrand. As the architect of the Cabinet of His Imperial Highness, he designed bronze and stoneware for the Imperial Court. The offered lot is a smaller variant of the malachite tazza currently in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, reproduced here in fig.1. The original design by Hallberg was first approved on the 17th October 1842, reproduced here in fig. 2. When the stone work was completed the tazza was sent from Ekaterinburg Lapidary Works to the Chopin Foundry in St. Petersburg to be mounted in bronze. In 1845, the finished piece was delivered to the Winter Palace and immediately an identical tazza was ordered. Originally the pair was destined to be exhibited in the New Hermitage, but was later placed in one of the Rooms of the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.
See an identical tazza sold 'Russian Art', in these Rooms, 12th June 2008, lot 696, for £25,000.