: The Russian Kremlin evokes many mental images, but for Western
minds, ornately decorated silver flagons, tankards and salt
cellars - the tableware of Tudor England - are not usually high
on the list. Yet the Armory Museum in the Kremlin houses one of
the largest and most impressive collections of English silver in
the world, spanning the eras of the Sixteenth Century Elizabethan
period to the Restoration.
It is not that early English silver is so plentiful in Russia,
but that it is so scarce everyplace else. Cumulatively, there is
a plethora of important pieces that document English silver
production throughout the vast network of British museums;
however, to see what is often regarded as the single most
important collection, one would usually have to travel to Moscow.
"Britannia & Muscovy, English Silver at the Court of the
Tsars," an exhibition featuring many of the most important pieces
from the Kremlin collection, together with a selection of related
books and maps, offers American audiences a rare opportunity to
view the collection. It currently is on display at the Yale
Center for British Art through September 10.
The Russian-made kovsh was used for serving mead. This model,
1624, belonged to the tsar. Courtesy of the Moscow Kremlin
Museum.
The legend of the Kremlin collection of English silver dates
back to the Nineteenth Century, when museum curators in England
were first tipped off by some diplomats. Rumors of this great cache
of early English silverwork were abundant, most often boasting of
pieces of the utmost quality. A pioneering study conducted shortly
before the 1917 Revolution confirmed the rumors and raised the hope
that the collection would become better known, but it was followed
by decades of silence.
For 50 years, the English silver specialists were in one part of
the world and the English silver in another. It was not until the
early 1960s that a scholar with access to English research would
again study the Kremlin's collection. "Britannia & Muscovy"
builds on the work of the past 40 years.
The story behind how so much English silver came to be deposited
in the Kremlin Armory is connected to Russia's long efforts to
establish itself as a European power. Cultural gatherings and
diplomatic embassies were important events for a ruler and his
court. There were banquets and entertainment and, of course, gift
exchanges.
This Elizabethan salt cellar, 1594-95, is more than twice the
size of the typical model. Courtesy of the Moscow Kremlin
Museum.
Relations between England and Russia date back to the
mid-Sixteenth Century when a private trading company was
established by London merchants for the discovery of the East. In
those days, opening up markets was synonymous with exploration. On
the first mission in 1553, two ships sank, but the third reached
not China or the East Indies but the Russian port of Archangel, to
the south of the Arctic Circle.
The ship's captain, Richard Chancellor, visited the court of Ivan
IV, the grand duke of Muscovy, who had established himself as the
most powerful Russian prince. Ivan the Terrible, as he became
known, the first of the Russian royalty to call himself tsar,
wanted to strengthen Muscovy's ties with Western rulers, so he
granted the English favorable trade conditions.
Diplomatic missions soon followed. Beginning in 1568, the English
government dispatched ambassadors laden with sumptuous gifts -
bribes, in fact - to preserve the privileges of English
merchants. Crystal vessels and fine textiles, even a state coach,
were among the offerings. Silverwork also figured prominently in
the embassy inventories.
The silver presented in the exhibition is typical of Sixteenth
Century English wares, gilded and heavily embellished and
displaying the technical brilliance for which the London smiths
were known. Not safeguarded by preservationists, many of the
pieces were melted down throughout the centuries as styles and
tastes changed - and financial necessity dictated. Vast
quantities of silver were also melted down during the unrest of
the English Civil War beginning in 1642.
The Russians, by contrast, were more protective of the treasures
they received, and for centuries these foreign wares were
exhibited on state occasions as proof of Russia's close ties with
the West. The objects comprising the collection of the Kremlin
have been described by scholars as "exceedingly rare and
historically significant."
