A Russian Cloisonné Enameled Gilt Silver Three-Handled Presentation Cup, Kriushonnitsa. Feodor Rückert, Moscow, be...

Description

A Russian Cloisonné Enameled Gilt Silver Three-Handled Presentation Cup, Kriushonnitsa
Feodor Rückert, Moscow, before 1899, with scratched inventory number 7590
7-3/4 x 8-1/2 inches (19.7 x 21.6 cm)
1738 grams

PROVENANCE:
Acquired by Joseph C. Hoagland (1841-1899);
Frank S. Johnson, a gift from the above;
Thence likely by descent;
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Greenfield;
Christie's New York, The Greenfield Collection of Russian Enamels, October 20th, 1998, lot 212;
Sinclair and Heather Raye Chen, purchased from the above;
Lyon & Turnbull London, The Chen Collection, November 23rd, 2008, lot 52;
John Atzbach Antiques, Bellevue, Washington, acquired from the above;
Acquired from the above by the present owner.


While the mythological figures on this vase have been described in past cataloging as "Sirin" or Russian mythological female figures with bird's bodies, these creatures sport female heads and torsos with wings and lionesses' bodies, which are more clearly derived from the ancient Sphinx than from the Sirens of Homer's Odyssey. Past specialists have also speculated that the "7590" inventory number might indicate that this masterwork by Rückert may have been retailed by Fabergé. However, new research by Faberge scholars Anna and Vincent Palmade have revealed that these numbers are part of an internal numbering system of Tiffany & Co., presented later in this catalog.

Joseph Christoffel Hoagland was born in Ohio in 1841, a descendant of an early Dutch settler to New Amsterdam, Dirck Janssen Hoogland, who arrived in 1657. The family became prosperous, and in 1866, Hoagland, together with his brother Cornelius Nevius Hoagland and Thomas Biddle created the Royal Chemical Company, which later became the Royal Baking Powder Company. By 1868, the firm was headquartered in New York, and Hoagland was soon living just off Fifth Avenue at 27 West 51st Street. Hoagland was also the owner of "Auldwood" a country estate in New Jersey with grounds by Frederick Law Olmstead and designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge of Boston, who were known to work with Tiffany on their interiors.

There is no evidence that Hoagland ever travelled to Russia, but it has been long known that Moscow enamellers Ovchinnikov and Kuzmichev supplied enamel wares to Tiffany's New York store. The late Anne Odom noted: "Tiffany's New York store, supplied by its representative in Russia, Henry Hiller, carried on an active trade in Russian works of art until the outbreak of war in 1914. It was works in the Russian style, by Antip Kuzmichev (which carried both the maker's mark and the mark of Tiffany & Co.) and others, that were most sought after by an American clientele (see Odom, A. Russkii stil': the Russian Style for Export, The Magazine Antiques, March, 2003).

The offered lot by Rückert was therefore acquired by Hoagland in New York at Tiffany & Co., and engraved there as a presentation piece, making it a Russian work with a uniquely American gilded age provenance, ultimately passing through both the important Greenfield and Chen collections before being acquired by the current owner.

This inventory number appears to be in conformity with Tiffany & Co. number series Tif0.7590 as discovered by Anna and Vincent Palmade. Please see their article published in this catalog, page 193. Heritage Auctions is grateful to Anna and Vincent Palmade for their assistance with the research of this lot.

Masterpieces of Russian Enamel from an Important American Collection



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