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Issues of 2008
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The vintage silver tableware by Sazikov
The interest to the antique silver tableware in the antiques market stays for already several decades and does not tend to decrease. This is quite understandable. The elegant silver coffee cans, milk jugs; plates, small spoons and other tableware present a beautiful combination of undisputable artistic value with historic charm stressed by the black niello. Russian Silver occupies a special place in the world antique market. The major auction houses of Sotheby`s and Christie`s regularly organize special sales devoted to the Russian Silver. In course of recent several years, the Tajan auction house organized a series of special sales of these items. Regular sessions at minor auction houses also feature a lot of these things rarely being left unsold.
Cups, «kovsh» grace cups, and «bratina» cups were used in ancient Russia to reward important services of a person to the State. These silver items had more gala representational meaning marking the merits of the awarded person, than just monetary value and were more works of the jewelry art than just utilitarian tableware. Such gifts by the tsars were the kind of substitution of the plain money award. In 17th century, for example, the tradition was established of cutting the title of the tsar and the state coat of arms on such gifts. Also, the name of the rewarded person and the description of his service were put on such items. In the 18th century, the tradition of silverware gifts flourished, especially in the days of Katherine II. In 1765, the teacher of the future Emperor Paul I, S.A. Poroshin, wrote in his daybook after visiting the treasury chambers of the Emperor’s Winter Palace that he discovered ancient and valuable tableware from the days of John the Terrible and his successor, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich being kept in these chambers. In the 19th century, these gala sets of silver tableware were often included into the dowries of Russian Grand Princess. In the early 20th century, and, certainly, after the revolution of 1917, the silverware lost much of its value in comparison with glass and porcelain. However, these days we see the revival of interest to it, which is proved by the results of sales at the major auction houses. Two main trends formed in the 19th century: the West European one and the national Russian, the latter being based on the ancient Russian art motives. The first mentioned school was certainly led by the genius of Karl Faberge. The names of the leaders of the national school are less known to the ordinary people, but rather to the specialists and connoisseurs. It is in spite of the fact that in the 19th century, the items by a number of these artists such as Pavel Fedorovich Sazikov were priced even higher than those by Faberge. The Sazikov Company was officially established in 1810, although Pavel Fedorovich Sazikov, its owner, had run a small workshop in Moscow since 1793. In 1810 it was transformed into a silverware factory. In 1837 the title of a purveyor to the Imperial Court was conferred to Sazikov. In 1842, St.Petersburg affiliate of the Company was opened. After Pavel Fedorovich’s death the family business was succeeded by his son, an outstanding silversmith, Ignatiy Pavlovich (1793–1868) and grandsons — Valentin (1830–1877) and Pavel (1815–1856). Ignatiy Sazikov owned a silversmith and goldsmith factory between 1830 and 1868. In 1845, a special department for training silversmiths (with a capacity of 80 trainees) was established on the base of the factory. Ignatiy Sazikov invited famous painters and sculptors to work for his company. He introduced new machines and applied new technologies. The shop and the factory operated till the early 1887 and ceased the work after the death of the last descendant of Pavel Sazikov’s family.
The late 19th century was the time of forming in Moscow of an original artistic culture basing on the thousands years’ tradition. Contrary to the St.Petersburg’s silversmith school, which has European roots, the Moscow school was formed in frames of the national conception of artistic culture. Sazikov was one of the brightest representatives of this trend. Masters of the 19th century produced silverware bearing patterns and forms of the 16th¬17th centuries, using folk art motives including engravings depicting images of Russian towns, plots from the Russian history and folk art paintings. The peak of this national trend development corresponds with the accomplishment of the set of nineteen household items, presented by Ignatiy Sazikov at the 1st World Exhibition in London in 1851. All the items were decorated with the images of the peasantry life, which was rare in this rich and privileged field of applied art. Elegant though simple figures of dancing bears that were favorite personages of the folk fairs and traveling circuses performances, the figures of Cossack-women playing banduras (folk instruments resembling big violins), sellers of milk beside their wooden canisters of milk and other figures executed in the repousse technique were placed on the sides of the silver cups, milk jugs, pitchers and press¬papers. The Sazikov’s Company was awarded with the big gold medal for the big floor candelabrum featuring the sculpture devoted to the victory on the Kulikovo field. The candelabrum was in the same league with the works by the best European silversmiths. The masterpiece by Ignatiy Sazikov was compared with that of the great Benvenuto Cellini. Everybody marked the original national character of items by Sazikov. He was the first Russian silversmith who started to work on orders from the West European clients on a massive scale. Since the middle of the 19th century, big and small medals of the all-Russian industrial and artistic exhibitions were awarded to the Sazikov Company products. In 1867, an order of the Legion d’Honneur was conferred to Sazikov marking his participation in the work of the World Exposition in Paris. The works of Sazikov are easily distinguished due to the subjects of the decoration plots featuring rocaille motives as well as various floral and geometry patterns of antique times origin (meanders, palm and laurel branches, lotus leafs, wreaths and flower garlands). So, in spite of the presence of a lot of subject plots in Russian style and the national character of the decorative patterns, features of rococo and empire are clearly traceable in the patterns on the items by Sazikov as well. The items by Sazikov are often can be met at the auctions (the whole tableware set is usually a rare and expensive thing, and a single item or several ones are more often to come across). The tea and coffee silver tableware set of Grand Prince Constantine Nikolaevich, the second son of Emperor Nicholas I, is one of such rare items. It was sold at Sotheby’s in 2005 for USD 1,808 thousand (at an estimate of USD 200–300 thousand). The set which was produced in 1848 includes a «samovar» tea pot, coffee pot, Turkish coffee pot, pie dish, two tea pots for brewing tea, two cream jugs, a plate, sugar tongs, two straining spoons, twelve tea spoons, and a big two-handle tray. The items produced by Sazikov’s factory, such as the ones of the above mentioned tea/coffee set are marked with the brand name of the Company: «óáúéëï÷ÿ», the silver assay of 84 and an image of the city coat of arms of St.Petersburg, as well as the year of manufacture and the initials of the assay control master and the brand of the master that produced a particular item. Some items feature a Russian letter «î», which stands for the Latin letter «N» on the breast of the doubleheaded eagle atop of the scepter on the St.Petersburg coat of arms. The experts’ opinion is that the items marked in such a way could be in the personal possession of Emperor Nicholas I. Cipher of an owner could be executed as a part of the decoration; being intertwined with the complex pattern of leaves and flowers. When a set like this one is a real rarity, particular singular items by Sazikov are comparatively frequently sold in the antiques and are available in terms of their price to an ordinary collector, or simply to a well to do businessman, wanting to add an elegant piece to his tableware. The items by Sazikov, which you will find in the antiques and at the auctions, are often rather simple in their form and decoration. It is no wonder, because Sazikov as many other prominent Russian silversmiths produced a lot of things for every day life together with special gala items. The another peculiarity of them is that very often an ordinary plain item or setting by Sazikov on sale in a Moscow antiques can be far more expensive than the similar items on sale at the leading international auction houses. It means that it makes sense to go abroad for buying the home products. However, you will not lose, regardless of the place of purchasing your Sazikov!
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