This is an extremely rare pair of vases with views of old Saint Petersburg c.1840. They were made by a prominent Russian Private Factory.
One shows the Alexander Column in Palace Square with the city seen by way of the Nevski Prospect. Still naming the landmarks.
The other shows Saint Petersburg from a distance with the river behind. This view may be from one of the Imperial Parks on the edge of the city but this has yet to be proven. There is a wall between the park the city. Possibly the edge of the unnamed palace grounds.
The reverse scenes could be part of the popular genre of ‘antique’ scenes with images of far away places in olden times. My theory is that the subjects were taken from the Czar’s Village, a preserved medieval town that belonged to the Czar where buildings such as these still existed. Looking for proof.
The view of Saint Petersburg from the distance has not looked this bright in a very long time. It came to me with the entire panel covered in darkened varnish with craquelure. The flaking varnish made it look as though the enamels were damaged. I stripped off the varnish minutes after unpacking. I am a little regretful now that I didn’t take a before shot. There was wide area of underpainting beneath the varnish that did not come off so easily. It took many applications of stripper over a couple of days to get the old paint off. The condition of the enamels was excellent. All that paint and varnish was to hide two stained hairlines. The next step will be to clean and stabilize the hairlines according to proper conservation standards. Currently sourcing the materials for the job.
Each vase has a different ‘non literate’ mark. I have found one of the marks illustrated in one of the Russian books. It is identified as Gardner.
The Gardner Factory would be a good candidate to have produced this pair. It was the first private factory to be established in Russia and made work for the Imperial family and other wealthy clientele. Francis Gardner, the founder, was an Englishman who emigrated to Russia in the Late 18th century.
Many factories made this same vase form. I am unsure of the design source but it seems to have been copied by different Russian, Bohemian, Polish and French factories.
