Pieces from the Cobalt Coffee and Chocolate Service presented to Paul I
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By Chris Graeme
It's a wonder that, while so much of Russia's imperial legacy was destroyed in the turbulent years of the Revolution, Civil War and World War II, some of its most delicate treasures survived intact.
Complete porcelain dinner sets, presented by various crowned heads of Europe to the tsars, survived remarkably intact and are the subject of a new exhibition in the Hermitage Museum.
Wandering through the exhibition in the Alexander Hall, one can marvel at these fine pieces of china which Catherine the Great and Peter III would have taken out when their friends or visiting dignitaries came around for dinner.
They certainly knew how to entertain, and commissioned 400-800 piece dinner services to cater for every imaginable dish, from the finest porcelain and ceramic factories that the Western Europe of the day had to offer.
Each of the four complete dinner services on display are unique and therefore priceless. They were all manufactured during the 18th century especially for the Russian court.
Here you will see four famous services: the Berlin Dessert Service, Cobalt Service, Andrew Service and the Cameo Service. Each handmade, handpainted service has its own individual motifs, and each piece is a work of art in itself.
The earliest dinner services turned up in Russia in the 1720s at a time when porcelain was considered an exotic luxury only the very rich could afford. Before this time, the wealthy had dined off precious metal services fashioned in silver, gold and pewter.
From Peter the Great's reign onwards, the Russian monarchs tried to emulate Western European fashion and etiquette -- especially that of France and Germany. Just as today everything American is popular in Russia, then everything French was seen as desirable.
This was particularly important in the imperial kitchens, where foreign foods were eaten while traditional Russian fare was left to the peasants.
The coffee and hot chocolate tea service decorated with the Order of St Andrew aptly demonstrates this point. Let's face it, 99.9 % of the population had never heard of coffee or chocolate and this was a novelty act the aristocracy had to get in on.
It was created in the middle of the 18th century by German porcelain master Meissen, and was sent to the Russian Empress Elizabeth I by Augustus III of Saxony as a wedding present for her son and heir, future Tsar Peter III and his new wife, Princess Sophie-Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, later Catherine the Great. The service is hand-decorated with flowers and imperial eagles as well as with the crest of the Order of St Andrew.
Fruit dessert dishes and china-handled, gold-plated cutlery from the Berlin Service -- a gift to Catherine II.
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One of the largest services ever produced by the Berlin China Works is the Berlin Dessert Service (1772), which has a staggering 487 pieces! It took two years to make and was a gift from Frederick II King of Prussia to Empress Catherine II. It didn't include just plates, cups, saucers and terrines, but also ornate table decorations which reflected in its designs the might of Catherine's empire. As a present, it demonstrates the close alliance Prussia had with Russia at this time.
Each piece, including the gold-plated china-handled cutlery, is embossed with Catherine's flowery initials and is considered her own personal dinner service.
The Cameo Service, including desert dishes and coffee and chocolate pots, was commissioned by Catherine II from the famous Sevres Porcelain Works in France in 1779. It took every single one of the Sevres workforce to produce this mammoth service, and each piece is individually handpainted with a landscape scene which is not repeated twice.
The 800-piece service incorporated cameo motifs from the new neoclassical style and reflected Catherine's taste and preferences for this art.
The last great service you will see in this exhibition is the Cobalt Service which was given as a gift by Pope Joseph II in 1785 to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, heir to the Russian throne. Manufactured in Hungary, it consists of 659 pieces. It was the emperor Paul's favorite service and remained at his palace at Gatchina until the end of the 19th century.
All the services look stunning and must have been a pleasure to dine off, but I pity those poor people faced with the unenviable task of doing the washing up!