A RUSSIAN BLACK DOLOMITE CIRCULAR VASE CIRCA 1840, BY THE EKATERINBURG IMPERIAL LAPIDARY WORKS

Vases of this large scale were produced in the imperial lapidary works as commissions for the imperial palaces or for the Tsars to send as diplomatic gifts and rarely appear on the market. Of an intense black with minor veins and speckles of white and yellow, this rare black Dolomite hardstone comes from the Chelyabinsk area in the Ural Mountains region. The sharp and elegant design, with wide lip, is very close to one vase drawing in the Imperial State Archive (fig.1) although with a slightly more elongated socle.