Scottish/Russian Interest: An early 19th century portrait miniature bracelet/pendant
Estimate: £5,000 - £6,000
Auction: 04 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
The oval portrait miniature of Charles Baird (1766 - 1843) attributed to Karl August Schreinzer, in a border of thirty-two old round and cushion-cut diamonds, to a detachable baton-link bracelet with engraved scrolling detail, unmarked; in a fitted presentation box
Dimensions
Length of bracelet: 18.5cm, portrait miniature: 5.3 x 4.3cm (overall)
Footnote
Charles Baird (20 December 1766 – 10 December 1843), was a Scottish engineer who made his name in Russia at the turn of the 19th century.
Born to humble beginnings in Stirlingshire, and one of nine siblings, Charles was christened Gascoigne Baird in 1767; however, would later choose to officially change his name in the 1790s. He was apprenticed at age sixteen to Carron Ironworks, near Falkirk where he quickly showed his aptitude, and by age nineteen had risen to a supervisory role in the gun department.
Carron Company manager, Charles Gascoigne, was quick to notice the young Baird’s potential, and in 1786 asked Baird to accompany him to Russia, to establish the Aleksandrovsk gun factory at Petrozavodsk, a city on the shore of Lake Onega in the west of Russia. They later established a cannonball factory in Kronstadt, just west of St Petersburg. Baird officially changed his name in the Church Registers of Scotland in 1792, though it was likely he began using Charles earlier to avoid confusion between him and his superior.
The same year Baird entered into a partnership with a Francis Morgan, later marrying his daughter, Sophia, in 1794. Their St Petersburg based business, known as Baird Works, specialised in steam-driven machinery; providing the ironwork for Russia’s first cast iron arch bridge in 1805, and in 1815 they were responsible for the Elizaveta, Russia’s first steamship, ultimately providing them with a monopoly on the steam routes in and out of St Petersburg.
His contribution to Russia’s industrial revolution didn’t go unnoticed, and he was awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir, an Imperial Russian order created by Catherine the Great to recognise continuous civil or military service.
Karl August Matveevich Schreinzer (1819 -1887) was an Austrian born portrait painter based in St Petersburg. He took Russian citizenship and was a non-enrolled student at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg from 1832 until 1836, later he became a member of the Academy of Watercolour Painters, eventually becoming the Keeper of the Museums of the Academy of Arts. Given Charles Baird’s death in 1843, he must have commissioned a relatively young Schreinzer fairly early in his career; offering an opportunity to a relatively fledgling artist.