English Silver At The Court Of The Tsars

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

: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 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.

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."