Russian Works of Art, Fabergé & Icons

A Very Rare pair of Russian jewelled silver and enamel wedding crowns, Ivan Dmitrovich Chichelev, Moscow, 1881

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Lot Closed

June 9, 04:27 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

A Very Rare pair of Russian jewelled silver and enamel wedding crowns, Ivan Dmitrovich Chichelev, Moscow, 1881

Each set with three miniature icons, one with Saints Constantin and Helena centred by Our Lady of the Sign, the second with Christ Pantocrator flanked by the Mother of God and St John the Baptist, each with an enamelled band of multicoloured foliage bordered by a line of blue paterae, the lower part with a band of simulated rubies and emeralds edges with simulated pearls, each crown surmounted by a cross, with crimson velvet linings, struck on the interior with maker’s initials

height 15cm, 6in.

Collection of the late George Hann, Christie's New York, 18 April 1980, lot 132
Sotheby's, New York, 15 December 1987, lot 270

Exhibition catalogue Russian Icons and Objects of ecclesiastical and decorative arts from the Collection of George R. Hann, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1944, no. 149, p. ***, illustrated
Avinoff, Carnegie Magazine, pp. 234 & 235
G. Hill et al., Fabergé and the Russian Master Goldsmiths, New York, 1989, no. 178, pp. 208 & 218, illustrated

Between 1935-1937, George R. Hann amassed one of the most important collections of Russian icons in the West. A pioneer of air transportation, lawyer, avid art collector and philanthropist, Hann displayed his collection in his 'Treetops' estate near Pittsburgh, in Sewickley Heights, Pennsylvania for forty-five years until his death in 1979.

Hann's collection was sold via Christie's in 1980 in five separate sales, at the time it was hailed by journalists to be the 'Greatest collection of Russian art outside of the Soviet Union'.