"Kovsh" with Imperial Eagle

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.

Conservation

The silver and gold handle and spout of the kovsh were cleaned using precipitated chalk to remove tarnish. The metal elements were then coated to reduce tarnishing in the future.

Silver and gilded silver elements were cleaned using precipated chalk in a slurry to remove tarnish. After polishing, the silver elements were coated to reduce tarnishing in the future.

Date	Description	Narrative
7/24/1959	Treatment	cleaned; coated
1/23/1988	Treatment	cleaned
1/23/1988	Examination	examined for condition
2/28/2002	Treatment	examined for condition; other
9/27/2017	Examination	Treated for exhibition.
9/27/2017	Treatment	Cleaned for exhibition

Exhibitions

• Russian Art: Icons and Decorative Arts from the Origin to the Twentieth Century. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1959-1960.
• A Millennium of Christianity: Russian Art from The Walters Art Gallery. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1988-1989.
• The Fabergé Menagerie. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus; Portland Art Museum, Portland. 2003-2004.
• Fabergé and the Russian Crafts Tradition: An Empire's Legacy . The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2017-2018.

Provenance Acquired by Alexandre Polovtsoff (Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Polovtsov), Paris; purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1930; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

Inscriptions [Mark] On handle: 88; [Inscribed] May 6, 1911

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1930