Tankard

A Turkish tankard preserved in the Kremlin Armory served as the prototype for this drinking vessel as well as for a number of related works. The Turkish piece was illustrated by Fedor Solntsev in his Antiquities of the Russian State (Drevnosti rossiiskogo gosudarstva), published in 1849-1853. The firm of Pavel Fedorovich Sazikov produced the earliest copy of this tankard in 1867 by, whereas Ovchinnikov's versions date from the 1890s.

In form, this tankard is architectural in form: the lower third is divided into arches enclosing raised floral filigree enamel over a gilt ground; the mid-section is in painted filigree, and the lid, which is in plique-à-jour enamel, resembles in outline the 16th-century Crown of Kazan with its ogee-shaped bands. The top knob is in the form of an openwork sphere. The tankard's lid is hinged whereas in many other examples, it is removable. The plique-à-jour base shows a red-headed eagle striding over a green serpent. Blue is the predominant color in Ovchinnikov's versions whereas the Turkish predecessor is mostly green.

An identical tankard by Ovchinnikov is in the Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of Russian Enamel, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (98.17). Closely related is another tankard in the Riddell collection (44.742).

Inscription

Provenance

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

Leo Kaplan [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Jean M. Riddell, Washington, D.C., March 25, 1988, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 2010, by bequest.