 Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, may I thank you for kind notification to the Society of Antiquities of London. I'm really honoured. And I'm honoured even more so that my very modest report is of interest from such knowledgeable audience. I would like to present a short survey of the English Silver from the 16th up to the 20th century from the Kremlin Armoury Museum. So this is the building of the Kremlin Museum. You can admire it, which was built in 1851 by a constant and ton architect. The Kremlin Armoury Museum in Moscow is a unique museum in possession of extraordinary riches containing the surviving treasures of the exhausts created by Russian craftsmen as well as outstanding works of art from western Europe and those of a rental origin. They were other bought as diplomatic gifts or purchased for the Tsar's treasury by specially appointed agents. The Armoury contains the only in the world collection of unethical gifts of the 16th and 17th centuries from England, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Austria. And this is a showcase in the Armoury Kremlin Museum in so-called the Hall of Western European Silver or diplomatic gifts with a collection of the late Tudor and the early Tudor Silver. The museum now has an eschipping of 500 pieces of English Silver of which 115 made between 1557 and 1663. It would be quite interesting to mention that this collection is one of the biggest and the most important of the period in the world. Actually, the oldest part of the collection is well known due to publications and exhibitions. I mean first of all the catalogue of the English Silver of the 1670s centuries written by Madame Pamara Goldberg. It was published in Russian in 1954. The famous book by Charles Eumann, the English Silver of the Kremlin, which was published in London in 1961 and catalogues of the exhibitions. In 1991 at Sotheby's, in 2006 at Yale Center for British Art in New Heaven, in the same year at the Sons of House, and it is exciting that 20 pieces are being exposed in the Victorian Delbit Museum now, the exhibition of treasures of the Royal Quartz, Tudor's Tudor and Tudor's Tudors and the Russian Zas. Six of these pieces have been recently attributed by Dr. David Mitchell who is among us and I would like to thank him with all my heart. The surviving documents testify to significant imports of silver pieces. Gifts and purchases entering the Kremlin were transformed to the Quarter Rocks Choir Exchequer, I'm sorry, where they were carefully weighed and recorded in special inventories. Here is the flask dated 1663 and on the bottom there is the inscription as on many objects the old Slavonic letters signifying the weight were engraved and sometimes also inscriptions indicating the source of the gift and the date of import. This flask was given as a diplomatic gift from Charles II to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich by Embassy of Sir Charles Hobart of Carlisle in 6064. One can identify existing objects with concrete embassies only from 1604 when the carriage that was a gift from James I to Tsar Boris Gudunov arrived in Moscow. James I sent a variety of silver vessels in 1615. Among them there were eleven cups and a newer flasks, pairs of livery pots and a brazier like a deep pan with an open word lead and wooden handles. In 1620, John Merrick brought items from James I that were not entirely discontented English Royal 17th century gifts since they included not only silver plate and textiles but also items of smith-precious tones as well as silver sculpture. No was the order in which the silver was presented, the usual one. Cups were presented not first among them one which is exported exhibition in the Vienna Museum. This one which was made in 1613 by Thomas Chaston, an attribution by Dr. David Mitchell. So these cups were presented after crystal salt, a Jasper cup gold mount, the table sculptures of an unicorn, lion and ostrich. In 1636 the diplomatic gifts were sent by Charles I via the ancient Simon Digby. They included a pair of good cups, pairs of livery pots, flasks, chased in the manner of shells, candlesticks, a lever set decorated with beads of this sea. And one of them flasks dated the 1606 and defied maker GC. Of special interest were the gifts brought from Charles II by Sir Charles Colise and the Sir of 1664. Very significant commemorative pieces, a gun that had belonged to Charles the post. French UN Basin that was a part of D'Aureo, Charles II's mother and Weta Marie, were included in a quite ordinary set of diplomatic gifts. I mean pairs of cups, livery pots, flasks and candlesticks. Some new and fashion pieces as six fruit dishes and one unique piece as the fume burner were added. It is very important to realize the fact that the diplomatic gifts often were chosen among the silver pieces from the Royal Treasury, the Jewel House. A pair of flasks dated to 1581 and the warring cup are decorated with the kings coat of arms. The warring cup decorated also with the device of the city of Warwick would seem to be one of the two surviving gifts among those given to James I in 1617 during his traditional tour of his lands. Some valuable pieces by English silversmiths entered the Tsar's treasury not from England directly but from other countries. Among them, two livery pots this is a basin sent by the king of Denmark Christian IV, Tudzan Mikhail Romanov in 1622 and in English good shaped cup of 8 of 1589 given by the state general of Holland, Tudzan Alexei Mikhailovich in 1648. Among the other pieces the fond shaped cup of 1557 is of exceptional interest. Cups of this type in form reminding that of an Italian tazza but differing having a brood and the sift stem were widespread in England during the first half of the 16th century. The lightest examples date back to the 1570s. Traditionally, such vessels were to be found in local parish churches but they were used as chalices to be found today in churches in Kent, Oxford During the second half of the 16th century it became fashionable to adorn vessels of this form with Renaissance motifs Barcelona figures in antique armor and emblems in medallions at the center of the bell in Russia and in the countries of Northern Europe it was used not for drinking but for the serving of fruits and data things. Many pieces made in the second half of the 16th century were decorated with engravings such as a livery pot dating from 1594 covered with finely engraved elegant grotesque spiral tendrils, heads of fantastical beasts and birds, luch pelmets and shells. This ornament consisting of a complex combination of grotesques was developed by the engraver Nicos Rosso, who arrived in England from Flanders in 1563. There are nine livery pots in the armory dating from the period 1585 to 1663. All of them are handset canne or pots of handset type. The nine handset canne appeared in English documents of 1526 under the inventory of the Royal Tudor Plate complied in 1574. The livery pot of 1613-14 is a splendid example of the steered silver chased with the images of Neptune and Tritons and Dolphins the heads on the winged cuppes beneath Baldacons, winged sirens with fish tails and coat of arms and shells. The representation of dragonly winged sirens spaces among the grotesques on the body of this piece as well as horn-blowing Tritons shows evident influence of Netherlandic Dutch ornamental sources. Indeed, the Tritons are very similar to Andrian colors errant with the livery and dolphin. The armory owns a very rich collection of English tanning cuppes. Cups traditionally occupied an important place amongst impassable gates and indeed usually featured at the hand of the lease of gates. Large gilded cuppes with covers of 90 cm high were specially chosen or made as gates. This is one of the examples. Two other tanning cuppes are decorated with images of beasts. The manner of execution and treatment of hunting or subjects on one of these are of markedly English national character. Indeed, unlike the classically idealized hunting sense on German silver, silverberg is dominated by a desire for realistic action and neutralistic depictions of animals. Animation and a more personal, emotional expression is achieved through the unexpected introduction of somewhat neat details such as the frog seated on a dragon. Among the extremely rare pieces in the armory are heraldic cups decorated with lines, unicorns and griffons. One is decorated with a typical English heraldic symbol, a striadic apinicus. A composite beast, part dragon, part line amidst heavenly orange trees. The other as you can see with figures of line and unicorn. The armory collection also has two examples of steeple caps whose globule of thistle-shaped form was almost exclusively the product of English silversmiths although it was a shape popular in Portugal too. There is a group of cups whose forms were borrowed from German silver. Yet while bell-shaped and grape cups directly repeat the shapes of German prototypes, the good shaped cups are clear examples of local masters applying a natural interpretation to a form introduced from elsewhere. In the armory two different types of good cup are represented, each having a distinct scheme of decoration. A standing cup of 1589 which was sanded by general states of Holland is decorated with typical English blood-chased ornament of quadrophones and multi-petal throttles in owls and circles linked by strap-back. Another cup of a similar form employs Matisse's characteristic of Netherlandish ornament, the sirens and tendrils ending in doffles hearts of the kind widespread in, for instance, the Prince of Herdo de Bray and Marcos Guilds. Still another characteristic English vessel that became popular in the Renaissance is the flask. Commonly called the pilgrim bottle because it carried by pilgrims on their way to the Holland. Six large flasks dating from between 1580 and 1663 measuring anything from 44 to 50 centimetres and decently decorated are today in the armory. Four of these rare vessels are now exposing at the Victor and Delbert exhibition. They're extremely impressive objects and were thus highly suitable for use as diplomatic gifts, usually being produced in pairs. Its popularity continued right up to the 19th century. In addition to one-shaped fissile cups and flasks English sylvath myths in late-tune and early-steward times produced another characteristic vessel in the large sterning salt. This square salt seems to be a symbol of Elizabethan culture. Here the features of many different kinds of art prints and drawings, wood carving textiles and even literature at the theatre were often in a single hurl. Elements of Netherlandish to the engraving, these nails on the suspended draperies the proportions of the figures are resonant with English wood carving. They aren't in sense so widespread on tapestries. The depictions of gods that recall the costume characters that appeared in 16th century pages. Such rich iconography contributes to the spectacular effect. Particular mention must be made of a group of unique items, among them two pairs of large water pots dating from 1604 and 1615 and the pair of huge laopards that have become to symbolize the Moscow collection. United by the common provenance each of these outstanding examples of English silverware once formed part of the English royal treasury known as the Jewel House and is described in the list of plates forming the Great Guild Cabot of Estate sold to the Royal Jewel of John Acton in 1626. Both pairs of water pots and the laopards were brought to Russia by the agent of the Moscow company Fabian Smith known in Russian documents as Fabian Ulyanov. For Tsar Mikhail Ramanov in 1629 Such water pots have no analogies in any other collection of English silver either in terms of their notable height 64 cm or their ornamentation. Both share common features identical form deriving from ceramics, spout in the form of a dragon's head with wings spread and complex handles in the form of a snake curled into a ring and with jaws stretched the nature of the ornamentation differs however the water pots of the 1604 on the left are notable for their combination of English ornament consisting of 2 deroses and thistles with the tongues of flame typical of Hispana-Portuguese silver The German ornamental tradition with its sense of dramatic tension the pulsating has somewhat nervous treatment form. Its interest in plastic effects is felt in the sirenas with widespread wings and the abundance of cast details for example lizards as well as the overall density of decoration on the water pot of 1615. Amongst the 17th century English silver in the armory is a group of works in Baroque style including cups, livery pots, fruit dish, a flask and a perfume burner all made in 1663 and brought as gifts for Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich by the embassy of Charles Howard Earl Carlisle from Charles II which arrived in Russia in 1664. All of them with the sole exception of the perfume burner are decorated in floral style. The perfume burner described in the original records as curiously and chaste and gild is a unique piece. It makes magnificent use of curricula style with combination with first decoration of course this type of decoration I mean a curricula style became part of the English silver vocabulary during the middle of the 17th century it was Dutch master Christian van Wernen employed at the court of Charles I who was responsible for introducing the auricula style into English silver. In 1650 he published Medallis artificial gradings based on his own works and those of his father Adam Van Dam shown all kinds of silver plates in the auricula style. Now I would like to draw a attention to an almost unknown part of the collection that is the English silver of the 18th, 20th centuries consists of more than 400 pieces and mainly contains the items by London masters which is the vast majority as well as the pieces by the silversmiths from Birmingham and Shetfield. Of the Manchit group on the 28 date back to the 1700s others were made in the period from the 19th century up to the 20th centuries and most of them are examples of flatware. In the 19th century the collection of the museum was replenished from different sources including private collections. Early in the 1920s silver tables and chandeliers of great artistic value were given over to the museum from the repository of the great Kremlin Palace. At about the same time English silver from the patriarch's high priest's treasury enriched the museum collection. The museum foundation which gathered valuable pieces of art from private collections, monasteries, churches and museums was set up after the revolution. As of the 1920s silver pieces were given over to the armory from different state organizations. Some pieces were bought or continued to be bought from private collectors nowadays. Unfortunately during the 1930s some pieces were sold. Three chandeliers and a table by Paul DeLammery were chosen for selling in 1930 but they returned to the Armory Museum from a special organization aimed at selling pieces of art they returned to the museum in 1923 due to dedication and enormous efforts of the director of the museum Dmitry Ivanov who managed to achieve it by never ending demands and the pills. Of the numerous number of English silver of 18th to early 20th centuries only several were published. Two of them were published I mean about these two. A table by Augustus Kurteld and one of the chandeliers by Paul DeLammery these two were published by Alfred Jones in 1909 in the Old English Plate of the Empire of Russia published in London. One chandelier was published in the catalogue of Paul DeLammery's exhibition which was at the Gotham Hall in 1989 and four pieces in the South Bis exhibition catalogue in 1991. The majority of them will be published for the first time in the catalogue resume this year. Among the 18th century silver the earliest is a job dating to 1707 by Richard Green It is a vivid example of Queen Anne's style the poor English perception of art which tends to modest decor and simplicity of form is certainly reflected in the silver of the period. Very often only heraldic engraving is used as a decoration as is in the case where the body and lead are decorated with engraved coat of arms of two Irish families Moore and Co. Quite rare pieces of English silver Tables dating to 70, 20s and 70, 42 as well as chandeliers of 1724 and 1734 are fantastic works of art by great masters of the 18th century Paul DeLammery and Augustine Crutold Here is the table made by Paul DeLammery The tables are decorated with engraved masks, towels and diaper work On the left this is a table top of Paul DeLammery's table and on the right table top of table made by Augustine Crutold The engraved coators and ornamented friezes of the inter-Catana with basque medallions are very typical of Paul DeLammery's early period of the 1720s The decoration of the silver from the Trabitullis from the collection of the small and museum in Oxford Canberra gathered as an example A similar male mask is found on the Walpole silver from the Victorian Velvet Collection The graphic sources of the engraved images date back to Daniel Marrott The sizes of the table are in Paul DeLammery's table 70 to 53 match the sizes of the 1720s, 1730s It is supposed that a monumental tray from the workshop of Paul DeLammery was about one decade later turned into a table Its decor was enriched by engraved motifs along the perimeter and on the place along the edges This assumption is based on different stylistic peculiarities of ornaments Still, another proof is that the maker's mark Paul DeLammery's mark was recovered by the engraved ornament The table by Augustus Kurtel is under conservation now and I'll be able to I can show you only its table top which has been recently cleaned It's impressed by its masterly work which is shown mainly in the mimical variety of depicted personalities Unfortunately it's hard to see So, in the mimical variety of depicted personalities satires young women and a bearded old man the effect of plasticity is very typical of the graphic works by William Hoggart The pieces by Paul DeLammery among them are some chandeliers kept in the armory of which two are six cons One is one tier 16 cons and four two tier 16 cons stand out by their massive size and monumentality Excuse me please for producing old photos Unfortunately, the chandeliers are dismantled at present but I believe that they will be expelled in the new museum building in the new building of the museum in future The presence of the crown with angels and the motto Gloria Del in Excelsis on the one tier chandeliers allowed to assume that they were commissioned by Nicholas Lake the 4th Earl of Scarsdale to decorate one of his luxurious mansions The last Earl of Scarsdale passed away in 1736 being bankrupt and his property including the chandeliers was sold The seven chandeliers kept in the armory were acquired for the Empress Anne It is known that four of them the two tier 16 ones were assembled in the faceted chamber before the coronation of Alexander III in 1881 The rest were kept in the hospice cathedral of the Grand Cranman Palace From 1926 till 1986 the chandeliers by Paul de Lannery decorated the interiors of the Armory Museum The works of Arthur Huguenot with masters a coffee pot by Nicholas Primont a cream pot by George Campara and a two-let box by Niverdor English Holocaust silver in the possession of the Kremlin collection Among them the coffee pot by Nicholas Primont and double it stands out It belonged to the Russian imperial family from the middle of the 18th century having entered the Winter Palace collection from the Arun and Baum Palace in the suburb of St. Petersburg in 1792 and becoming part of the Armory Collection in the 1920s from the Palace, I mean Winter Palace property It was part of the Arun and Baum service of which some items were made in the Chinoiseries style and seven of them are still in the Hermitage The coffee pot is a rare work of one of the most talented silversmiths of his time who made his silver in a very short time span between 1743 and 1757 Fresh as the natural motifs dynamics of form and decor the Tiozzo treatment of silver and wood make the coffee pot known as T-shirokaka silver In the middle of the 18th century alongside with Rokaka's style are the tenders as a silver can be traced they are connected with the now classic style These trends are depicted in the aesthetics of marvels which quickly gilded and very smooth service of an extent of 1739 by Augustine Couttel The now classic period in England in 1760 up to 1820 is quite possible to divide in the two stages The first is connected with the work of Paul Adam on the one hand and the powerful influence of the French silversmiths on the other The examples of such works in silver are candlesticks from the Tula set of 1776 1777 The precise plasticity of form specific features of the account assignment turned the introduction of the laurel frieze into the core of the candlesticks produced evidence that Thomas Humming who made them was dedicated to the style of Robert Adam The armory chamber also has in its possession some pieces from the Tula Valin Tver and Yaroslav sets made by the English silversmiths In general different sets were commissioned by Catherine the Great in London, Paris and Augsburg as gifts to Russian provinces ruled by Governor General and known as Governor General Sets The mentioned form Tula, Valin, Tver and Yaroslav sets contained pieces made by Robert Jones the First, John Scoffield William Chorn of the First and George Humming Most of them are the Hermitage After the death of the Empress in 1797 all sets were given over to the Winter Palace property then some of them, for example Tula candlestick candlestick from a Tula set was given to the Armory Museum The representatives of the latest stage of the style were inspired not only by the Greek but also by Egyptian sources and are known as the inheritance of the region style The three plates and assault cellar made by Digby Scott and Benjamin Smith II from the start of 1804 which 12 years later was decorated with a memorial inscription commemorating George IV visit to Berlin are made in this style There is everyday life items such as boxes, assault cellars trays, plates, flatware pertaining to different historic styles There are masterpieces of a memorial character commissioned by Russian emperors Danish and English kings Among them two pairs of dessert stands of 1847 as well as a pair of flasks 1891 and the 200 cup of 1902 The dessert stands originate from the famous London set ordered by Nicholas I after his return from London in 1844 and were made by the masters of the Hampton Ruskell firm It also contains seven sculptural groups which were complete replicas of memorial objects made by masters of the famous firms of the Hampton Ruskell Some of them are in the Hermitage In Russia this celebrated set was supplemented by work produced by the St. Petersburg firms of Pavel Saizikov and Nikolson Plinken as well as the Imperial Glass Factory The crystal vases and silver frames were included in this set Altogether some 1680 items were made for the London set during the period from 1844 to 1848 The works of Hampton Ruskell are famous for the thorough execution of tiny details and overall plastic effect of the casting which are evident especially in the cast foliage of these vines and the meticulously rounded fur of the animals The dessert stands are particularly interesting being rare samples of such decorations in the 19th century dating back to the German Confect Baume of the 17th century and we have them A pair of flasks and a two-handled cap belong to a guarantee company which with other famous from Hampton Ruskell greatly contributed to the English silver in the 19th century The pair of flasks of quite an impressive size 79 cm high with in great inscription a good example of tradition we know from the we know from the inscription that it was given by the king of Denmark Christian IX as a silver wedding gift to the emperor Alexander III and empress of Russia Marie-Ferdinand Dagmar of Denmark In the decor of these impressive vessels the pictures introduced by Higunel with masters of the last part of the 17th century can be clearly seen it is undoubtedly the use of cast details as bucket masks The flasks are made in the queen Anne style while the two-handled cap is an exact copy of the similar one of the 1740 Its design is based on that of several identical mid-18th century London makeups one of which, bearing the maker's mark of Thomas Farron in 1740 the watchful company of Goldsmiths This two-handled cap made in the workshops of Charles II Harris in 1902 retailed by Gerard and Co. was given to the grand Duke Alexinian Kalaevich on the day of his baptising from his efficient great uncle and godfather King Edward VII The workers of masters from local centres in the collection of the armoury allowed to their polarities and specialisation From 1860 the English firms began to specialise in making miniature silver The fashion for miniature silver was provided in the 20th century and became extremely fashionable in the times of Edwards In Birmingham miniature silver was produced in such great volumes that it was exported to Holland Many pieces of the toys of 1905-08 were made by masters of Saunders and Shefford a renowned firm which has been in Birmingham since its foundation in 1869 Their sizes from 2 cm up to 13 All these pieces are kept in a red velvet box with the Russian state coat arms on its lead and belonged to the Russian imperial family and entered the armoury in 1914 The colours in Crimea Levadia numerous examples of light wear made between 1920 and 1940 by well-known English firms such as Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company The majority of I would like to show once again the showcase but I didn't succeed this one yes it's nice to look In general the majority of pieces from the armoury are fantastic examples of the craftsman of English silversmiths and provide a brilliant overview of the most important features of the world famous collection It is incomparable not only due to the number of unique pieces which is true to the earliest part of the collection but also due to its variety having been in the Crimean for many centuries beginning from the middle of 1500s and in spite of different historical turbulences the English silver is very well preserved in its original aspect as it has never been polished or regilded From the very beginning the collection has been treasured and kept with the utmost care and respect That is about all what I wanted to bring to your attention today Thank you very much