Fraternity Drinking Bowl (Endova)

Jacob (Iakov) Anikievich Stroganov (1528-1577), to whom this vessel belonged, was a notable member of the Stroganov family which had large estates in the northeast Russian towns of Solvychegodsk and Perm. Jacob and his brother Gregory were the initiators of the Russian colonization of Siberia. The two visited Moscow in 1574, and it is possibly then that the present piece was made. Named "bratina" in the inscription along its rim, it is the earliest dated example of a large drinking bowl that subsequently became known as "endova". Such vessels were used in wealthy households for pouring out mead, beer, or wine during feasts.

The bowl with its alterating plain and foliate gadroons (ornamental bands) is an exceptionally rich example of the baroque style, which is characterized by elaborate decoration.

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Countess Luibov Aleksandrovna Musina-Pushkina (born Kusheleva-Bezborodko), Saint Petersburg, prior to 1904, by purchase; Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Polovtsov (Alexandre Polovtsoff), Saint Petersburg and Paris [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.