of baluster form in the Medici style, the central register of the vase body with a cut-crystal pattern in the form of laurel leaves, bracketed by a band of diamond-cut crystal on top and bottom, the lowest register with a wide band in a checkered diamond pattern, the gilded bronze handles in the form of scrolling vegetative volutes, each handle terminating in a satyr mask, the gilded bronze square-stepped base with a palm leaf border, height: 62 cm (24 3/8 in.)

LOT NOTES
The pair of monumental cut-crystal vases featured in the present lot was created based on the drawings of Ivan Alekseevich Ivanov (fl. 1815-1848), a leading designer of various large-scale glassworks ornamenting the Russian Imperial palaces. In reference to these vases, the preeminent expert and historian of Russian glass, Tatiana Malinina, writes:  these vases [form] a bright and exceptionally rare example of works from the Imperial Glass Factory of the Alexander [I] Empire style epoch. According to the court archives, works of such supreme quality were produced in just a handful of examples, and an identical vase is presently in the collection of the State Historical Museum, Moscow. There is reason to believe, that the style of cut-crystal featured in these pieces was a personal favorite of Emperor Alexander I, and according to documents, the vases were commissioned as a gift for the members of the Russian Imperial Court for the Easter or Christmas holidays.

EXPERTISE:
Accompanied by a certificate of expertise from E. A. Ivanova, Head of Decorative Art, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, 2006 and an authentication letter from Tatiana Malinina, Russian glass expert and leading research associate at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

RELATED LITERATURE:
Arcadii Gaidamak, Russian Empire Style: Architecture, Decorative Art and Design of the First Third of the XIX c., (Moscow-Paris: Trefoil Press, 2000), p. 135
Dekorativno-prikladnoe Iskusstvo.(St, Petersburg), 1995, p. 82