Horses in War and Piece Horses in War and Piece | Page 20

Russian Silver Imperial
Presentation Cup and Cover
Fabergé, Moscow
1893
height: 43 cm; weight: 3,8 kg
stamped with Imperial warrant mark of
Fabergé under base
assay mark of Moscow, 1893
silver standard: 88 zolotnik
Provenance
Sale Sotheby’s London, 11 June 2008,
lot 440
A silver Imperial presentation cup
of urn shape standing on a concave
triangular base upheld by three double-
headed eagles with spread-out wings,
each perched on a polished sphere. The
cup is chased with tapering flutes at the
base and wide band of laurel leaves, it
is further set with an applied two-line
Cyrillic inscription above and a band
of alternating acanthus and anthemion
floral design under the lip. The domed
cover with tapering flutes surmounted
by an Imperial Russian crown. Inscribed
in Cyrillic: Imperial Prize / the Moscow
Imperial Horse Racing Society
A similar Imperial presentation cup
was in the Fabergé in America in the
Metropolitan Museum in New York in
1996 (Fabergé in America 1996/7, cat.
302, col. ill. p. 279; Wilmington 2000/1,
cat. 145, col. ill. p. 101).
Moscow Imperial Horse Riding
Society, one of the oldest in Russia,
was established in 1834 on the initiative
of the Moscow Governor-General His
Highness Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich
Golitsyn. The history of the Society is
closely related to the Imperial family
and the higher nobility circles. After
Golitsyn, in different years it was
headed by Moscow mayor Prince
Vladimir Dolgorukov and Grand Duke
Dmitry Konstantinovich; the position
of treasurer of the society was held
for a long time by the son of Fyodor
Dostoyevsky - Fyodor Fyodorovich.
20
21