A Tula gilt and blued steel casket Russia, 19th...

A Tula gilt and blued steel casket

Russia, 19th century

Rectangular and on ball feet, the front with thumbpush springlatch, the whole in mirror-polished steel decorated with applied silvered and gilt steel floral elements, the hinged lid decorated with shaped blued steel panels framing and centering another octagonal blued steel panel, the whole also decorated with silvered and gilt steel ribboned and tasseled floral garlands, the interior lined in rose velvet.

H: 2 1/4, W: 3 5/8, D: 2 5/8 in. (approx.)

PROVENANCE:

Private collection, Florida

The offered lot is unusual for its intact blued steel elements as well as silvered and gilt steel. Caskets of this type were largely produced in the later nineteenth century, and a related casket without blueing dated 1882 was sold Christie's, 3 June 2015, London, South Kensington, lot 544. For another related casket, see Malchenko, M., Tul'skie zlatokuznetsy, Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo "Avrora", 1974, ill. 96.