A Fabergé Silver Presentation Kovsh Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Life Guards Equipage (1710-1910), Moscow, 1908-1910

formed as a ship with timbered hull, the raised prow chased and engraved with the Imperial double-headed eagle, the body with cannons emerging from portholes, the shaped flat handle with the monograms of Peter the Great and Nicholas II, the underside engraved N.N. Bystrov in Cyrillic, struck K. Fabergé in Cyrillic with Imperial Warrant, 88 standard

attractive chasing and unusual subject; some remnants of gilding present on interior and handle, a small dent to interior of prow
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On 12 May 1910, the Russian court celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Life Guards Naval Equipage, founded by Peter the Great to convey the Imperial family on water. The front of the kovsh is decorated with the Naval (Sudovoi) Standard of the Russian Imperial Government, the double-headed eagle holding maps of the four major seas (Baltic, Black, Caspian, and White Seas) in their beaks and talons. The remainder of the body of the kovsh is chased to resemble the exterior of the sort of 18th-century timbered ship, a reference to Peter’s founding of the Russian Navy. A ceremonial dinner for about 250 members of the Equipage was held on 12 May 1910; a number of similar kovshy have appeared on the market, each inscribed to a different individual (see, for example, Christie’s New York, 13 April 2011, lot 143) and it can be presumed that presentation kovshy were made for the officers of the Life Guard Equipage.