29
EARLY ‘R USSIAN MOSAIC’
Fig.
Drawing by I.I.
G alberg dated 1827.
1. © Russian State Historical
Archive, St
Petersburg
A RUSSIAN MALACHITE TAZZA, AFT ER A
DESIGN BY I.I.
GALBERG, CIRCA 1825-3
the finely figured shallow circular bowl with a moulded ever ted edge
on a slender spreading circular shaft raised on a square bas
58cm
Malachite had always been prized for its rich green colour,
with dramatic almost black wavy inclusions, since the Neolithic
Era, when it was used as a dye.
But it was in Russia, during the
19th century, where the stone became a national treasure, a
passion most famously proclaimed in the Malachite Room of
the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, furnished with massive
malachite columns and fireplace in the 1830s.
RELATED LITERATURE
V.B.
Semyonov, Malachite, Sverdlovsk, 1987.
Mavrodina, The Art of Russian Stone Carvers 18th-19th
Centuries, St.
Petersburg, 2007.
L.
Budrina, Malachite Diplomacy, 2020.
high, 76cm.
diameter; 1ft.
10¾in., 2ft. 5⅞in
Initially trained by Italian craftsmen, the Russians quickly
became highly skilled in working their native stones, passing
these skills on through the generations.
In 1721, Peter the Great
founded the first Russian lapidary manufacture and hardstone
grinding mill, in Peterhof near St Petersburg and in 1751 the
Imperial Lapidary Works was established at Ekaterinburg in the
Urals.
From the 1810’s, the popularity of malachite objects was
greatly increased following Nikolai Demidov’s commissions
in Paris using this material, but also a few years later with the
discovery of new and rich mineral deposits near Mednorudinsk,
on the western slopes of the Ural Mountains.
In the 1830s,
further large deposits were discovered on the Demidov estate
at Nizhnii Tagil on the Siberian side of the Ural Mountains.
The sharp and elegant design of this impressive mala chite
tazza is related to the work of Ivan Ivanovich Galberg (1782-
1863) (fig.1), the most prolific designer for hardstone objects
in Russia, and is an exciting addition to a group of ma lachite
works executed in the first decades of the 19th centu ry, when
the production of large scale objects such as this was still in
its inception.
‡ W £ 40,000-60,000
Buyers are liable to pay both the hammer price (as estimated above) and the buyer’s premium together with any applicable taxes and Artist’s Resale Right
124
(which will depend on the individual circumstances).
Refer to t he Buying at Auction and VAT sections at the back of this catalogue for further information.