By Galberg, Ivan Ivanovich (Russian, 1782-1863)
These exceptional Russian malachite vases were designed by Ivan Ivanovich Galberg, the famous architect employed by the Ekaterinburg Imperial Lapidary Factory.
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The vases are of Campana form, and they are set on stepped square malachite bases, on ormolu (gilt bronze) paw feet. These are placed on short square malachite and ormolu plinths.
Each vase stands on a partly fluted malachite stem, which is mounted with ormolu smooth bands and belts of foliage. The vases’ bell-shaped bodies are, in the lower section, gadrooned and decorated with ormolu bead-and-reel and ovolo bands. Each vase body is mounted with two ormolu handles, which are ornamented with classical male bearded masks. The vases’ upper bodies are smooth, and their flared mouths cut with egg-and-dart motifs, and mounted with similarly patterned ormolu bands. The vases are contained within specially-designed cases, fitted with ormolu handles.
These two vases were designed by Ivan Ivanovich Galberg (1782-1863), who was the architect of the Imperial Russian court from 1817. These vases are very similar to a pair held in The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (inventory numbers ERP-2641 and 2642) and to another dated 1826, which is illustrated in Semyonov, V.B. Malachite, Sverdlovsk, 1987, Book 1, p. 139, ill. 22.
The vases illustrate the early 19th-Century vogue for malachite items in Russia. The vibrant green gemstone, with its beautiful concentric veins, was sourced from deposits in Altai and the Ural Mountains. There were three major imperial factories for stone-cutting in Russia at this time: Peterhof, Ekaterinburg and Kolyvan. The designer of this pair of vases, Galberg, was known to have worked at the Ekaterinburg Imperial Lapidary Factory, which was established in 1765. Grand items veneered in malachite were proudly displayed by Russia at the great International Exhibitions of the 19th Century.
This pair was photographed in the Drawing Room of Croft House in Helensburg, Scotland in 1926. One of the vases is depicted in an oil painting of the same room by the Scottish artist Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, dated 1934. This painting was sold in Sotheby’s London sale L18418 on 12 June 2018, lot 112.
Vases: Height 54cm, diameter 33cm
Boxes: Height 60cm, width 38cm, depth 38cm
A collection in Russia before December 1925; M. & R. Geneen, Grosvenor Galleries, London, 21 December 1925; acquired by Major Ion Harrison.
Reference:
15935
