A Louis XVI gilt-bronze mounted tulipwood, amaranth and teinted maple secrétaire de pente, circ

A gilt-bronze mounted Ural pink granite covered urn, Russia, Peterhof manufactory for the stone, workshop of St Petersburg for the mounts, circa 1805, from the Stroganoff collection

the handles as egyptian sirens, with a fruit finial

Height. 22 cm

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Grand vase couvert en granit rose de l’Oural et bronze doré, Russie, manufacture de Peterhof pour la pierre, ateliers de Saint-Petersbourg pour les bronzes, vers 1805, provenant des collections Stroganoff

les anses en sirènes portant le némès égyptien, la prise en graine

Haut. 56 cm

Provenance
Collection du comte Alexandre Sergueïévitch Stroganoff, palais Stroganoff, Saint-Pétersbourg, puis par descendance collection des comtes Stroganoff;

Vente de la collection Stroganoff, Berlin, Galerie Lepke, 12-13 mai 1931, lot 142;

Vente étude Beaussant-Lefèvre, Paris, 25 avril 2003, lot 133

Literature
L. Réau, « L'art français du XVIIIe siècle dans la collection Stroganov », in Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de l'art français, 1931

P. Hunter-Stiebel, Stroganoff, the palace and collections of a Russian noble family, New York, 2000

I. Sychev, Russian Bronze, Moscou, 2003

Catalogue note
Count Alexandre Sergueïevitch Stroganoff (1733–1811)

Alexander Sergeyevich was born in 1733 into a powerful Novgorod family who, in the 16th century, partly colonized the Oural and its fabulous mineral deposits.

In 1768, he took part in the creation of the Academy of Arts. After his first marriage to Anna Vorontzova in 1758, he married Katherine Troubetskaya in 1771.

He then embarked on a second trip to Europe, settling in Paris on rue de Richelieu, then rue Montmartre and finally rue de Verneuil. His two children, Pavel Alexandrovich and Sofia, were born in Paris.

Passionate about the arts, he built one of the most important collections of paintings in the world, buying from the finest auction houses of the day. He commissioned paintings from Hubert Robert and Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, busts of Voltaire and Diderot from the sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, a pair of highly original ebony consoles from the cabinetmaker Jacques Dubois and also from the widow Dulac, rue Saint Honoré. He also owned a pair of vases from the former Luigi Anton Laura collection (Sotheby's sale, Paris, June 27, 2001, lot 76) as well as the Saunier cylinder desk orned with a Parques clock from the Ribes collection sold by Sotheby's in Paris on December 11, 2019, lot 7.

In 1801, Tsar Paul I the first appointed Count Stroganoff President of the supervisory committee for the construction of Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan. In a posthumous portrait realized in 1814, he is shown in the foreground wearing the grand uniform of the Order of Saint Andrew, his left hand holding a plan of the Academy of Fine Arts, with the dome of Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan in the background. The pink granite vase with Egyptian mermaids sits on the ebony and gilt bronze console with lapis lazzuli top (lot 209 of the 1931 sale), demonstrating his attachment to furnishings he considered precious and indicative of his taste, which also served to affirm the expertise and competence of imperial manufactures.

The richness of the Oural deposits and the variety of colored stones led to the development of three imperial cutting factories (Peterhof, Ekaterinburg and Kolyvan) where master lapidaries perfected an art destined, among other things, to adorn imperial palaces. This vase, in pink granite, is part of this tradition, as is the large bowl supported by an Egyptian woman made in the Peterhof workshops from a design by the architect Voronikhine, a close associate of Count Stroganoff, and now preserved in Pavlovsk. The theme of bronze figures with mermaid or newt tails was also widely used to decorate carved stone objects in early 19th-century Russia. The State Bronze Workshop, created on the initiative of Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganoff, was located on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg, and was responsible for mounting in gilded bronze pieces from stone carving factories, notably the one at Peterhof, as well as furniture and objets d'art.

The Stroganoff Palace

Built in 1753 in the heart of St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospect by Francesco Bartoloméo Rastrelli, architect of the Winter Palace, the Stroganoff Palace is today one of the jewels of Petersburg architecture. Clearly influenced by Italian Baroque, the palace was built with a decor that can be found today in certain Bavarian churches. On the Count's return to Russia, he undertook further extension and renovation work in an "antique" style. Around 1790, the famous picture gallery and the mineralogy cabinet were built.

Soviet sales

Sergei Alexandrovich (1852-1923), the last count of the dynasty, decided in 1914 to open the palace to the public. Four years later, the Bolsheviks occupied the fourth floor of the palace, which in 1919 became a museum of the city of Petrograd and was later attached to the Hermitage. The Soviet government, disposing of its contents, began to disperse the collections. The vase was sold by the Soviet Union as part of the massive interwar art sales carried out to finance industrial development. The lack of liquidity (currency and gold) led the Politburo to consider exporting art and antiques for sale. These disposals were studied by Elena A. Osokina, "De l'or pour l'industrialisation. La vente d’objets d’art par l’URSS en France pendant la période des plans quinquennaux de Staline », in Cahiers du Monde russe, n°41/1, January-March 2000. Sales began in the early 1920s and really took off in 1927, when a whole mechanism of expropriation and confiscation of property was put in place. In 1927, the Sovnarkom proposed "to organize the export from the USSR of antiques and luxury items, namely: antique furniture, household objects, objects of worship, bronze, porcelain, crystal, silver, brocade, carpets, tapestries, paintings, autographs, precious stones of Russian origin, handicrafts and other items of no value to museums". This last point was not retained, and above all was not adapted to the sale of "objects of value to museums".

The Soviets orchestrated a series of auctions at the Rudolph Lepke Gallery in Berlin, where early paintings and the finest French decorative arts were offered for public sale. The Stroganoff collection was auctioned from May 12 to 13, 1931.

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Le comte Alexandre Sergueïevitch Stroganoff (1733–1811) 

Issu d’une puissante famille originaire de Novgorod qui, au XVIe siècle, colonisa en partie l’Oural et ses fabuleux gisements de minerai, Alexandre Sergueïevitch naquit en 1733.

Dès 1768, il participa à la création de l’Académie des Arts après un premier mariage avec Anna Vorontzova en 1758, il épousa en 1771 Katherine Troubetskaïa.

Il entreprit alors un second voyage en Europe et s’installa à Paris rue de Richelieu puis rue Montmartre et enfin rue de Verneuil. Ses deux enfants Pavel Alexandrovich et Sofia naquirent à Paris.

Passionné par les arts, il se constitua alors une des plus importantes collections de tableaux, achetant dans les plus belles ventes de l’époque. Il commanda des tableaux à Hubert Robert et à Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, des bustes de Voltaire et Diderot au sculpteur Jean-Antoine Houdon, une paire de consoles en ébène d’un dessin trè