Description
This kovsh (ceremonial cup) is carved from an unusually large piece of nephrite, a type of jade. The underside of the handle is inscribed May 6, 1911. In the old style (Julian) calendar, May 6 was Nicholas II’s birth date, and the kovsh therefore might have been intended as a presentation gift to celebrate the tsar’s 43rd birthday, although the marks on the metal show that it was made years earlier.
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