20ct, the urn shaped cup with a fruiting grapevine and acanthus frieze and palmetes, the foot and rim with stiff leaves, upturned handle. With three enamel miniatures possible by Pierre-Henri Sturm (1785-1869) depicting the mining of gold; copper and iron ("mine d´or; Mine de Cuivre; Mine de fer"). The stand with similar fruiting grapevine and acanthus frieze, the underside with engraved text: "Cette Tasse a été faite avec le premier or trouvé à Nijnotaguilsk gouvernement de Perme en Sibirie l´Année 1824 et donnée a Anatole Demidoff par son père". Both with marks. Height of cup 17,5 cm, diameter of stand 16,2 cm. Total weight 776,3 gram (cup 473 g, stand 303,3 g,). Gabriel-Raoul Morel (fl. 1797-1832) may be considered as one of the most important French gold boxes makers of the first half of the 19th Century and he supplyed both the court of Napoleon and that och Louis XVIII.
Provenance
Commissioned 1824 by count Nikolai Demidoff (1773-1828) and presented to his son;
Anatole Demidoff (1813-1870) Prince of San Donato (from 1837). probably by inheritance to his nephew;
Paul Demidoff (1839-1885) 2nd Prince of San Donato
Acquired after his death by
Sir Charles C Wakefield (1859-1941) Viscount Wakefield (from 1934), his widow
Viscountess Sarah Frances, f. Graham (1858-1950)
Sold at Christies, London 7 november 1945, “property of the Rt. Hon Viscountess Wakefield”, lot 120.
acquired in the London trade, probably in the 1950´s,
by a Swedish private collector
Thence by decent
Literature
The Connoisseur, vol XLVI, September-December 1916: The Mansion House and Sir Charles C. Wakefield´s Collection, page 76, illustrated page 75.
The Connoisseur, vol LVI, Mars 1920: Old silver in the Collection of Sir Charles Wakefield, Bt., C.B.E., page 161.
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