TWO LARGE AND RARE PORCELAIN SERVING DISHES FROM THE KREMLIN SERVICE, IMPERIAL PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY, ST PETERSBURG, PERIOD OF NICHOLAS I (1825-1855) |

the cavettos painted with stylized swirling foliage with blue tulips centering on a coral-colored rosette, all set against a black ground within a border of green heart-shaped leaves, the remainder of the plate with elongated cypress in green and black on a richly ornamented ciselé gilt ground, the tooled, gilded rim painted with a band of simulated red and green jewels, with blue cypher marks of Nicholas I, both with red inventory numbers

Sotheby's New York, 22 April 2009, lot 365

See Tamara Kudriatseva, Russian Imperial Porcelain, St Petersburg, 2003, pp. 130-132

Serving dish 1: Three areas of wears to gilding and enamels in the center, some scrathching to gold and black ground. Serving dish 2: Two areas of wears to gilding and enamels in the center, some scrathching to gold and black ground.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This service was commissioned for use in the Great Kremlin Palace, the official Moscow residence for the Imperial family, when the process of renovating, and ultimately rebuilding, the palace began in 1837. The task of designing the new service fell to the talented student and future professor of the Academy of Arts Fedor Solntsev, who had been studying and recording Russian antiquities. He drew upon 17th century metalwork as a model; in the case of these serving dishes, the source was the interior of a richly jeweled tazza belonging to Tsaritsa Natalia Kirillovna housed in the Kremlin Armory Museum. The Kremlin Service was intended for five hundred people, with two thousand dinner plates, one thousand soup plates, and one thousand dessert plates.  Part of this service was exhibited in the Hermitage museum in 2016, From the dinner-service Storerooms, decorating the Russian Imperial Table in the Eighteenth to early Twenthieth Centuries, n° 43, pp. 333-338.

See also Anne Odom, Russian Imperial Porcelain at Hillwood, Washington, D.C., 1999, pp. 57-61.