An Russian Shaded Cloisonné Enameled Gilt Silver Peacock-Form Kovsh. Ovchinnikov, Moscow, 1899-1908. 6 x 9-1/2 x 5-1/4 i...

Description

An Russian Shaded Cloisonné Enameled Gilt Silver Peacock-Form Kovsh
Ovchinnikov, Moscow, 1899-1908
6 x 9-1/2 x 5-1/4 inches (15.2 x 24.1 x 13.3 cm)
760 grams

PROVENANCE:
Mrs. Tatiana Chaliapin Chernoff, New York;
Sotheby's New York, Russian Works of Art, June 8 & 9, 1978;
Sotheby's New York, Russian Art, Volume 1, April 15, 2008, lot 373;
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

ILLUSTRATED:
De Froment, Diana (ed.), Art at Auction; The Year at Sotheby Parke Bernet 1977-1978, Sotheby Parke Bernet: New York, 1978, p. 252;
Hill, Gerard, Fabergé and the Russian Master Goldsmiths, Park Lane: New York, 1989, illus. 224, p. 225.


Tatiana Feodorovna Chaliapina (1905-1993) was the daughter of famed Russian operatic bass, Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938). Tatiana Feodorovna was born in Moscow together with her fraternal twin, their father's namesake Feodor Feodorovich (1905-1992). In 1922, during the Russian Civil War, her father and brother fled Russia for Paris, leaving Tatiana, her mother Iola, and the rest of the family behind to protect their apartment and belongings under the new Soviet regime.

The family remained in the Soviet Union until 1960, when they were finally reunited in Rome. The family's emigration was facilitated by the "thaw" of then Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev. The price of departure was leaving behind their home and its magnificent art collection amassed by their father, Feodor Chaliapin Sr. The only objects of art which were officially permitted to leave Russia were photograph albums of Chaliapin's childhood and youth in Moscow. It is tempting to consider that this work may have been spirited out of Russia by Tatiana Feodorovna and sold abroad in 1978.

Feodor Feodorovich is perhaps best known for his acting roles in The Name of the Rose (1986) and Moonstruck (1987), and died in 1992. Tatiana Feodorovna died in Rome in 1993 and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Masterpieces of Russian Enamel from an Important American Collection



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