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PLAYING CARD BOX

Creator(s): Dmitrii Kolesnikov (Silversmith)

Currently in storage


About this object

Box is made to resemble a deck of playing cards that are slightly bent from use. On the cover is a wanderer in a forested landscape. He carries a basket full of vegetables (?) in his proper right hand and a long pole that rests on his shoulder in his proper right hand. On the tip of the pole is a diamond shape in niello; it is possible the cover is meant to resemble the ace of diamonds. The whole scene is in niello on a gilt stippled ground. On the reverse back is an interior scene with a woman seated in a well-upholstered Biedermeier style chair, reading at a plain table before a window. A little girl and a small dog are seated on the floor patterned in alternating squares of black and white. The little girl, on the right, rests her head against the woman's legs. The dog, at the woman's left, is seated directly in front of the back legs of the chair. Five niello diamonds are incorporated in the design; making it to look like a playing card (five of diamonds). Three of the diamonds are partially obscure the bodies of the woman, the little girl and the dog. The entire pattern is rendered in niello on a gilt stippled ground. Box opens on the right.

Object name:
PLAYING CARD BOX
Made from:
Silver gilt -- niello
Made in:
Moscow, Russia
Date made:
1820
Size:
1.6 x 6.7 x 8.9 cm (5/8 x 2 5/8 x 3 1/2 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
13.24
Class:
NIELLO
Signature marks:
Hallmark [St. George and the Dragon] Inside bottom. Hallmark for the city of Moscow. Assayer's mark and date M.K 1820 Struck in square frame inside bottom of box. Mark of Moscow assayer Mikhail Mikhailovich Karpinskii, active in Moscow from 1800 to 1824. Active in St. Petersburg from 1825 to 1838. Maker's mark [Cyrillic] DK Struck inside bottom of box. Mark of Dmitrii Kolesnikov, active Moscow between 1815 and 1821. Silver standard mark 84 Struck inside bottom of box.
Credit line:
Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973