A three-coloured gold and enamel snuff box, Charles Colins & Söhne, Hanau, the enamel painted by Jean David Berneaud, circa 1856

'THE LATE PRINCE WORONZOW.
The arrival of the report of the decease, at Odessa, of this distinguished Russian nobleman, soldier, and diplomatist, has not excited any remark in England. But 4 years ago the name was not only familiar in England, but throughout Europe, as that of one who held high commands in all the Russian battles against Napoleon – who enjoyed more than any other the confidence of the Emperor Alexander I. - as an intimate friend of the late Duke of Wellington – and, in the beau monde, as one of the handsomest figures that graced the courtly saloons of Europe.
The Woronzow family is one of the most ancient of the Russian nobility, and latterly was much advanced by the Empress Catherine. The late prince was general-in-chief in three campaigns; but his principal military achievements were those of the war of the Don. For several years he filled the office of Governor-General of White Russia, including the Crimea, acquiring an immense amount of property of several provinces, and a large portion of the town of Odessa. He subsequently held the office of Governor-General of the Caucasian provinces, and had a favourite residence in the southern Crimea, which has been extolled by visitors for the mildness of the climate, and the oriental splendour of its garden and lawns' (The Sun, London, Tuesday, 25 November 1856, p. 2 e).

Part of this residence by the Black Sea, the Moorish Vorontsov Palace in Alupka at the southern tip of the Crimea, is represented on the lid of the present lot. The splendid palace was commissioned by the Governor-General of Novorossiya, Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov (1782-1856, fig. 1) and designed by the English architect Edward Blore (1787-1879), who is perhaps most famous for completing the designs for Buckingham Palace in London. The princely residence merged Scottish baronial and Neo-Moorish styles with Gothic Revival and Neo-Mughal elements, and the choice of Blore as an architect was also partially due to the Prince's love for England. Mikhail's father, Semyon Vorontsov, was Catherine the Great's ambassador to England, and the Prince had been educated in London. The palace had cost Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov nine million roubels when it was built over the course of twenty years from 1848, and served him as a summer residence.