A Rare and Large Gilt Silver Russian Niello Hinged Tankard. The Tankard Swedish with conjoined HP mark of Hennin...

Description

A Rare and Large Gilt Silver Russian Niello Hinged Tankard
The Tankard Swedish with conjoined HP mark of Henning Petri, Nyköping, circa 1680, the Niello work Moscow, late 17th early 18th Century
7-1/8 x 8 x 6-1/2 inches (18.1 x 20.3 x 16.5 cm)
949 grams (30.51 troy ounces)

PROVENANCE:
A La Vieille Russie, New York.


Niello is a traditional decorative technique involving the inlay of a black mixture of silver, copper, lead, and sulfur into engraved metal, typically silver. In Russia, niello work began as early as the 10th and 11th centuries, inherited from Byzantium, but flourished particularly from the 17th through the 19th centuries, and especially prominent in centers such as Moscow, Tula, and Velikii Ustiug, where artisans became renowned for their precision and aesthetic refinement. Russian niello is thus a continuation of Byzantine practice with a unique cultural adaptation that contributed to the country's decorative arts heritage.

The offered lot, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, shows a critical moment in Russian design at the beginning of the Petrine age, when western silver forms were being adopted by Russia, and the extravagant part-gilt niello decoration formerly associated only with ecclesiastical use became part of secular decoration. The subject of the images on the tankard are that of the complex biblical story told in the Orthodox Septuagint 3 Kingdoms 13: 1-34 (1 Kings 13: 1-34, KJB); that of King Jeroboam and the Man of God of Judah. In it, a prophet warns King Jeroboam that his altar will be defiled. After a sign from God and the king's healing, the prophet is deceived into disobeying God's command. As judgment, a lion kills him, and Jeroboam persists in sin. Various sections of the composition show direct quotations from the text in Old Church Slavonic, specifically verse 2: And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.

The selection of the text for a drinking vessel's niello decoration is somewhat enigmatic, in one simple context it conveys the forceful message that when the word of God is disobeyed, there is nothing left but sin - a powerful message for a drinker. In another more political context, it may suggest two opposing reactions to Peter the Great's religious reforms of the early 18th century; the abolition of the patriarchate, and the creation of the Holy Synod under state control. To those against Peter, the biblical story may have seen his reforms as "building false altars" with a Sovereign condemned to sin. To those who supported Petrine reform, the verse might have carried a simpler message: the lion episode may have been interpreted as a sign that disobedience to God brings inevitable judgment, whether upon tsars, clergy, or reformers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Foelkersam, Baron A. de. Inventaire de l'argenterie conservée dans les garde-meubles des palais impériaux : palais d'Hiver, palais Anitchkov et château de Gatchino. Saint-Pétersbourg: Golicke & Willborg, 1907;
ПОСТНИКОВА-ЛОСЕВА, М. М., Н. Г. ПЛАТОНОВА, Б. Л. УЛЬЯНОВА. ЗОЛОТОЕ И СЕРЕБРЯНОЕ ДЕЛО XV-XX ВВ. (ТЕРРИТОРИЯ СССР). МОСКВА: ЮНВЕС, ТРИО, 1995;
von Solodkoff, Alexander. Russian Gold and Silverwork, 17th-19th Century. New York.: Rizzoli International Publications, 1981.


Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000.

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