A rare Russian porcelain tazza from the Tsar Nicholas I Service made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, Saint Petersburg, circa 1845-1855. The tazza featuring the crowned cross from the Chain of the Order of Saint Andrew in a shaped reserve on a white ground, within a wide cobalt blue border, the interior with six shaped cartouches with badges of the Orders of Saint George, Saint Vladimir, Saint Stanislas, Saint Alexander Nevsky, Saint Anne, & the Order of the White Eagle on a pale yellow ground. The border & handles molded with a gilded chain of floral motifs, on four lion’s paw feet. Dimensions: 4 in. h x 14 7/8 in. w 12 1/2 in. d (10.1 x 37.8 x 31.7 cm).

The sources for this Russian Imperial porcelain service can be found in a sixty-piece dessert service with the badges of the Russian Imperial orders that Queen Victoria commissioned from Coalport after Emperor Nicholas I’s state visit to England in 1844. Intended as a souvenir of their meeting, the full service was delivered to St. Petersburg in 1845. The magnificent dessert service so impressed him that he ordered additions to it for use at court banquets. It is known in England as the Tsar Nicholas I Service & in Russia as the Coalport Service. For more on this service, & the popularity of English porcelains & faience, at the Imperial court, seeLidia Liakhova, “English Lessons: British Ceramics at the Russian Court between the Congress of Vienna & the Crimean War,” Pinakoteka 18-19, pp. 157-163.