Press Room

Marjorie Merriweather Post’s appreciation for Russian art developed while she was living in Soviet Union for 18 months (1937 to 1938), as the wife of Ambassador Joseph E. Davies. While the nucleus of her Russian collection was acquired during this visit, she spent the next thirty-five years purchasing the majority of her collection at auctions or through European and American dealers. Mrs. Post recognized Russian imperial art as complementary and integral to western European art in the 18^th and 19^th centuries and displayed objects from France and other western European countries side-by-side with imperial works in the grand setting of her home.

Today, Hillwood houses the most comprehensive collection of 18^th- and 19^th-century Russian imperial art outside of Russia. Represented are extensive holdings of porcelain from the country’s most important production factories, as well as significant pieces of imperial glassworks, Fabergé luxury objects, and numerous important paintings—all of which reveal the influence of western European art on Russia. Hillwood also has an important collection of Russian liturgical works, such as icons dating to the 16^th century, as well as chalices and vestments dating from the 18^th to 19^th century.

To illustrate the range and connoisseurship of Mrs. Post’s collecting, a few extraordinary highlights are identified below.

Fabergé
Approximately eighty pieces by the famous jeweler to the imperial court, Carl Fabergé

(1846 – 1920) are in the Hillwood collection, including two of the 50 rare imperial Easter Eggs that were originally commissioned by the emperors Alexander III (1881-1894) and Nicholas II 1894-1917). The Catherine the Great Easter Egg, originally presented by Nicholas II to his mother in 1914, was a gift to Mrs. Post from her daughter Eleanor Barzin by way of the Hammer Galleries in New York. Two panels on the front and back of the egg are 18^th century style miniature allegorical scenes based on the French artist François Boucher. These and several smaller panels are set off by rows of pearls and swags of diamonds surrounded by chased gold.

The Twelve Monogram Egg exemplifies a rare decorative technique of Fabergé. Made of gold and covered in blue enamel ciphers, it has 12 diamond-studded monograms of Alexander III and his wife. Fabergé’s preference for designing bejeweled objects rather than conventional jewelry is evidenced by the broad range of functional Fabergé items in the Hillwood collection, such as clocks, candlesticks, ashtrays, stamp boxes and a crotchet hook. One of Fabergé’s finest examples of enameling is a Music Box (ca. 1907) made as a 25^th wedding anniversary gift for Feliks and Zinaida Yusupov. The number 25 is set in diamonds on the clasp, and the box has scenes of the family’s six palaces painted in enamel.

Russian Imperial Porcelain
Mrs. Post was one of the first foreign collectors to amass an extensive collection of porcelain tableware, plates, cups and saucers, tea sets, vases and symbolic bread and salt plates from Russia’s most important porcelain producers including the Gardener, Kornilov, and Popov Factories. Her collection of imperial porcelain is exceptional as an illustrative history of the broad range of wares produced by this influential factory, from its inception by Empress Elizabeth I in 1744 until the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. One of the earliest pieces of porcelain in the collection, Bowl from Her Majesty’s Own Service (ca. 1759), a dessert service covered with gilt latticework and pink rosettes on white ground, is believed to be the first services made in the imperial porcelain factory.

During the reign of Nicholas I (1825 - 1855), who equaled, if not exceeded, Catherine the Great in the number of his artistic commissions, the factory produced more porcelain than at any other period, especially vases with copies of European paintings. Hillwood has four pairs and three single vases from this period alone. Shortly before departing from Moscow in 1938, Mrs. Post was presented a pair of vases by Madame Molotova on behalf of the Russian government. These elongated vases (ca. 1836) have carved and gilded porcelain handles rendered like scrolling branches—a popular neo classical motif. The base is covered with modeled gilt acanthus leaves on a gold ground and on the middle section on a blue ground are copies of unidentified 19^th -century German landscapes.

Military Culture
Shortly after the Napoleanic wars and at the beginning of his reign, Nicolas I suppressed a rebellion in 1825 by Russian elite attempting to institute a constitutional monarchy. The emperor commemorated the military throughout his reign by commissioning emblems and scenes from military culture to appear on porcelain services, souvenirs and plates as well as exceptional gold and silver objects that were presented as royal gifts.

In the Hillwood collection is a large Military Presentation Cup that represents the height of Russia neoclassicism in the 1830s. The officers in his regiment presented it to Count Stepan Fedrovich Apraksin in 1833. The solid gold cup has finely rendered details in burnished gold against a matte background and is the only known piece fabricated by master metalsmith Johann Christian Barbé that bears his initials. The lid of the cup is carved in minute detail to resemble the plumed helmet of the Chevalier Guards.

Paintings
Numerous portraits of the Tsar and Tsarinas of Russia, from Alexis (1645-1676) to Nicholas II, are on display in the Entry Hall at Hillwood. Prior to the invention of the camera, portraiture painting was a prodigious industry. Especially among royalty, presenting a portrait of oneself as a gesture of thanks or to adorn social, educational institutions or official departments was standard practice. One of the most impressive portrait paintings is a monumental presentation Portrait of Catherine II (ca. 1788) attributed to the artist Dmitrii Levitskii. Posed in her full state regalia and draped in an ermine robe and satin mantle embroidered with double-headed eagles, the empress is gesturing with a scepter in hand to a bust of Peter the Great and an orb and crown, illustrating her claim to follow in Peter’s imperial footsteps.

One of the most popular paintings in the collection is a Boyar Wedding Feast, a large-scale historical genre painting depicting the union of two powerful royal families in the 17^th century. Painted in 1883 by Konstantin Makovskii, who used meticulous detailing in the ornately embroidered clothing, fur trimmed coats, and pearl-studded women’s headdresses, the theatricality, color, and extravagance of the scene exemplifies the Russian revival that was popular in the late 1800s.

Ecclesiastical Objects
While Marjorie Merriweather Post’s initial acquisitions of Russian liturgical works can be credited to her third husband, Joseph Davies, who began collecting icons and chalices during his tenure as ambassador to Russia, she actively acquired Russian icons throughout the remainder of her life. At the time of her death in 1973, the Hillwood collection had 84 wooden icons ranging from the 16^th through the early 20^th -centuries, presenting a wide range of the history of Russian icon painting. The icon, which is a symbolic representation of the Mother of God, Jesus Christ, saints, or scenes from the scriptures, often has a beautifully crafted metal cover ornamented with filigree, enamel, jewels and repoussé. The first icon purchased by Mrs. Post believed to have a royal provenance is the Iverskaia Mother of God (ca. 1896-1908) in a filigree enamel and pearl be-decked cover, which was allegedly from the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo.

Numerous chalices made for the Orthodox Church and ranging in date from the 16^th to 19^th century are also on display, including one of the last few remaining liturgical works of the once prolific master goldsmith Ivar Windfeldt Buch. Perceived as one of the finest Russian Orthodox chalices, the piece was commissioned by Catherine the Great in 1791 for the St. Aleksandr Nevskii Lavra in St. Petersburg. It is studded with thousands of diamonds and eight cameos in chalcedony, bloodstone, nephrite, carnelian, and cast glass from Catherine’s private collection.