17th century AD

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2001 by Barry Shifman

The Armory Museum in the Moscow Kremlin (see P1. II) has one of the largest collections of European Renaissance and baroque silver in the world. One reason for its magnificence is the richness of the gifts brought to the Russian czars by ambassadors on important occasions. [1] Gifts were also given by merchants and representatives of international trading companies hoping to obtain the right to trade in Russia or to transport merchandise across Russian territory A selection of these gifts is currently on view in the United States in an exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art noted at the end of this article.

The silver objects presented as gifts to the czars were extremely valuable in monetary terms, and the recipients had a strong desire to preserve them. To document their history, they placed inscriptions on the bases of many of them. The gifts were a tangible sign of the czars' wealth and power, and when piled high on buffets and stands, they impressed foreign visitors.

The museum's unique collection of more than three hundred pieces of English silver includes some one hundred and fifty objects brought to Russia between 1567 and 1664, most of them by diplomats from the Muscovy Company, but some purchased by the czars from foreign merchants. [2] The Muscovy Company was founded by English merchants in 1555, two years after trade and diplomatic relations were established between England and Russia, and it dominated both spheres for the next century Essentially a trading company, it had close ties with the English court and the nobility and was the main rival to Dutch merchants in the Russian market.

The museum contains numerous examples of both early seventeenth-century English Renaissance silver and objects in the late baroque or Restoration "floral" taste. An early example is the flagon in Plate III, one of a pair presented by an English ambassador to Czar Michael Romanov in 1636. These large flagons were often included in gifts presented by merchants from the Muscovy Company The slightly tapered cylindrical body is decorated with grotesques, winged masks, shells, canopies, and three oval cartouches enclosing vignettes of Neptune flanked by two mermen riding sea monsters and blowing conches (see P1. IIIa). The sirens with dragonfly wings and the horn-blowing tritons reflect Dutch ornament popular in England during this period.

According to English inventories, the term flagon refers to a tall, pear-shaped vessel with a narrow neck and chain (see Pl. IV). Examples such as that in Plate III are often referred to in contemporary records as livery pots and only became known as flagons around the middle of the seventeenth century. The example in Plate III is of the type known as Hanseatic, being similar in outline to eighteenth-century objects made in Baltic coastal towns, although it dates from a much earlier time.

The largest number of English gifts in the baroque style that survive in the museum are from the 1663--1664 embassy led by Charles Howard (1629--1685), first earl of Carlisle. After Charles II's accession to the English throne in 1660, the government sent the earl to Russia at the head of a large embassy to try to obtain the recovery of its trading privileges lost after the execution of Charles I. The gifts the embassy brought were exceptionally valuable and included splendid silver-gilt candlesticks, goblets, and fruit stands made in London. At an audience in the reception hail of the Palace of Facets at the Kremlin in February 1664, the earl presented a flagon to Czar Alexis Mikhaylovich on behalf of Charles II (P1. IV). [3] Unlike earlier objects made by English silversmiths, the gifts of 1663-1664 are decorated with bold-relief chasing. The body of this flagon, originally one of a pair is embossed with flowers and leaves populated by a leaping unicorn and a wild boar with its young. This object is an exa mple of a form common in England, where there was a great demand for luxury objects of all types after the restoration of Charles II. The rich treatment of flowers shows the influence of he Dutch floral style, which was in vogue in England during the mid-seventeenth century when many Dutch silversmiths worked in London. By 1665 nearly everything English was decorated in the same style. Although the flagon is marked by Robert Smithier it was embossed by a skillful chaser, probably a foreigner working in London such as Wolfgang Howzer (w. c. 1652--c. 1682) or Jacob Bodendick (w. c. 1661--1688).

From about 1640 Amsterdam was an active center for the production of silver decorated with lush floral motifs, and the museum has about 150 objects by Amsterdam silversmiths. One of the most important depictions of the floral style is the dish shown in Plate V, the only extant major work by the Amsterdam maker Hendrik tom Hulsen. [4] This dish was offered as a gift to Alexis in 1665 by the Dutch ambassador Coenraed van Klenck (1628--1691) and is unusual for its large size and magnificence. It is decorated with tulips, carnations, and anemones, embossed realistically across the entire surface in high relief.