Lot 202
An early 19th century Russian Archangel pierced foiled back ivory veneered box
The Lord Constantine Collection
Auction: 12 October 2007 at 12:00 BST
Description
decorated throughout with flowers and trailing foliage, with English silver handle above a stepped hinged lid with pierced panels, the interior with two lidded compartments decorated with flowering vases, with conforming sides and front on bun feet
25.5cm wide, 17cm deep
Footnote
Literature: Richard H. Randall Jnr., Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery, Hudson Hills Press, New York in association with the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1985, p.322, fig 491, plate 99
Note: Russian carved ivory was centred on the port of Archangel on the Dvina River in the late 18th and early 19th Century, producing items both for export and for the shops of the Armoury in Moscow. Among the products were small boxes, caskets and small pieces of furniture. Walrus ivory, mammoth tusks preserved by Siberian permafrost, and the bones of domestic wild animals were employed either alone or in combinations. For additional variety, these materials were frequently tinted with natural dyes or pierced and overlaid on mica panels.