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拍品专文
THE YUSUPOV FAMILY
Prince Boris Nikolaevich Yusupov (1794-1849) and his wife Princess Zinaida Ivanovna Yusupova (née Naryshkina, 1810-1893) were among the wealthiest Russian landowners and philanthropists. Over the generations, the Yusupov family amassed a vast fortune, including four palaces in St. Petersburg, three in Moscow, thirty-seven estates throughout Russia, coal and iron-ore mines, factories, mills and oil fields on the Caspian Sea.
In 1917, as the Revolution gained force, Prince Felix Yusupov, who was a great-grandson of Prince Boris Nikolaevich Yusupov and is best known for his participation in the assassination of Rasputin, concealed the family's jewelry collection, silver, and other works of art under a staircase in the family's Moscow house.
The Bolsheviks occupied most of the Yusupov’s properties, including the Moscow mansion. The pieces from the Yusupov collection were not discovered until April 1925, when the Bolsheviks undertook repairs of the building. Photos taken at that time show numerous items, including the famous Yusupov Scandinavian silver service. Much of the silver was sold by the Soviet government in the late 1920s.
An 1850 inventory of the property of Zinaida Yusupova records the present service as a 'Rococo' toilet set. The inventory provides a complete list of its components, including the present ewer and basin, recorded with their exact weights of 7 pounds and 7 pounds 13 zolotniks respectively, as well as three boxes, a cup, a small basin, a mirror, candelabra, and other pieces.
A group of related objects, including a pair of silver candelabra, a large mirror, a silver table bell and a box from the same Yusupov toilet service, made by Vaillant in 1846, were sold at Sotheby’s, London, 9-17 June 2020, lots 146-148. Those items were acquired by American businessman Edward C. Finch in Soviet Russia in 1927. It is very likely that the present ewer and basin were sold by the Soviet government to Armand Hammer around the same time.
JEAN-BAPTISTE VAILLANT
Jean-Baptiste Vaillant arrived in St. Petersburg around 1842 and, alongside Gustav Fabergé, quickly established himself as one of the city’s leading silversmiths. In 1847, Vaillant won the Imperial prize for the annual Peterhof Regatta and, by 1848, he was supplying the Imperial Court. Vaillant’s fame grew and he was awarded the first prize at the St. Petersburg Industrial Art Exhibition in 1849 for ‘works of gold and works of diamonds and pearls framed in gold’.
One of the judges on the Industrial Art Exhibition panel, described Vaillant thus: ‘The works of Sazikov and Vaillant may be described as refined in the fullest sense of the word, and some of their creations even move beyond the bounds of ordinary crafts, and stand [to] compare with true works of art.’ (G. von Habsburg, Fabergé: Imperial Craftsman and His World, London, 2000, p. 49 and p. 51).
We are grateful to Dmitry Krivoshey for his assistance with the research of the present lot.
Prince Boris Nikolaevich Yusupov (1794-1849) and his wife Princess Zinaida Ivanovna Yusupova (née Naryshkina, 1810-1893) were among the wealthiest Russian landowners and philanthropists. Over the generations, the Yusupov family amassed a vast fortune, including four palaces in St. Petersburg, three in Moscow, thirty-seven estates throughout Russia, coal and iron-ore mines, factories, mills and oil fields on the Caspian Sea.
In 1917, as the Revolution gained force, Prince Felix Yusupov, who was a great-grandson of Prince Boris Nikolaevich Yusupov and is best known for his participation in the assassination of Rasputin, concealed the family's jewelry collection, silver, and other works of art under a staircase in the family's Moscow house.
The Bolsheviks occupied most of the Yusupov’s properties, including the Moscow mansion. The pieces from the Yusupov collection were not discovered until April 1925, when the Bolsheviks undertook repairs of the building. Photos taken at that time show numerous items, including the famous Yusupov Scandinavian silver service. Much of the silver was sold by the Soviet government in the late 1920s.
An 1850 inventory of the property of Zinaida Yusupova records the present service as a 'Rococo' toilet set. The inventory provides a complete list of its components, including the present ewer and basin, recorded with their exact weights of 7 pounds and 7 pounds 13 zolotniks respectively, as well as three boxes, a cup, a small basin, a mirror, candelabra, and other pieces.
A group of related objects, including a pair of silver candelabra, a large mirror, a silver table bell and a box from the same Yusupov toilet service, made by Vaillant in 1846, were sold at Sotheby’s, London, 9-17 June 2020, lots 146-148. Those items were acquired by American businessman Edward C. Finch in Soviet Russia in 1927. It is very likely that the present ewer and basin were sold by the Soviet government to Armand Hammer around the same time.
JEAN-BAPTISTE VAILLANT
Jean-Baptiste Vaillant arrived in St. Petersburg around 1842 and, alongside Gustav Fabergé, quickly established himself as one of the city’s leading silversmiths. In 1847, Vaillant won the Imperial prize for the annual Peterhof Regatta and, by 1848, he was supplying the Imperial Court. Vaillant’s fame grew and he was awarded the first prize at the St. Petersburg Industrial Art Exhibition in 1849 for ‘works of gold and works of diamonds and pearls framed in gold’.
One of the judges on the Industrial Art Exhibition panel, described Vaillant thus: ‘The works of Sazikov and Vaillant may be described as refined in the fullest sense of the word, and some of their creations even move beyond the bounds of ordinary crafts, and stand [to] compare with true works of art.’ (G. von Habsburg, Fabergé: Imperial Craftsman and His World, London, 2000, p. 49 and p. 51).
We are grateful to Dmitry Krivoshey for his assistance with the research of the present lot.