A PORCELAIN PLATE FROM THE DOWRY SERVICE OF GRAND DUCHESS ALEXANDRA PAVLOVNA, IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY, ST PETERSBURG, PERIOD OF CATHERINE II (1762-1796)

Like the Cabinet Service which served as a model, the Dowry services for the granddaughters of Catherine the Great are decorated with bands of flowers and centered with Italianate scenes copied from grand illustrated sources such as Della Magnificenze di Roma antika e moderna. Da Giuseppe Vasi da Corleone (Rome, 1764) and Antichita Romane opera di Giambatista Piranesi (Rome, 1756). 

The service for Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna (1783-1801) was the first of the Dowry services and was already completed in 1796, well before her marriage to Joseph, Archduke of Austria and Palatine of Hungary (1776-1846) in 1799. Sadly, her life was cut short prematurely when she died of peurpural fever shortly after giving birth to a stillborn daughter in March 1801. Joseph donated a great portion of her dowry to the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest and the largest group of objects from this important service remains in that museum. On the service, see K. Tasnàdi-Marik, 'Russkii farfor v Muzee prikladnogo iskusstva v Budapeshte,' Acta historiae artium Academiae scientiarum hungaricae, 1954, pp. 81-98 and T. Kudriavtseva, Russian Imperial Porcelain, St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 68.