An important and elaborate silver-gilt and enamel tea and coffee service

Pavel Ovchinnikov under Imperial Warrant, Moscow, 1908-1917, a few pieces with partial marks for a workmaster overstruck by firm's mark

Pavel Ovchinnikov under Imperial Warrant, Moscow, 1908-1917, a few pieces with partial marks for a workmaster overstruck by firm's mark
comprising: a tall teapot with a lid, a small teapot with a lid, sugar bowl with a lid, a creamer, a round bowl, an oval basket with a swing handle, sugar tongs, a sugar scoop, a lemon fork and a tea strainer; all decorated in varicoloured shaded filigree enamel of a very high quality and ornamental granulation around tea-shaped reserves; bodies of coffee and tea pots, creamer and sugar bowl are outlined with rows of reserves featuring elaborate subjects from mythology and Russian folklore: Samson and the lion, Sirin bird, galloping Pegasus, bird amidst branches of a fruit tree, a heraldic lion, eagles and swans; alternating with reserves of colourful stylized flowers, top and bottom with rows of fish scales in pastel colours; rims outlined with silver-gilt basket-woven border, handles and spouts enamelled with flower and foliage against gilded ground terminate with zoomorphic finials, lids enamelled with large rosettes and centred with conical finials, handles and lids are fitted with modern replacements as insulation rings; a bowl, a basket, and serving utensils are decorated en suite with floral motifs and small reserves outlined with granulation and borders of blue dots; 84 standard (10)
height of a coffee pot: 19.7cm (7 3/4in); length of the basket: 25cm (10in).

Provenance
Acquired in Moscow by Ahmet Muhtar Mollao?lu, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey, 1923-1924
Thence by descent

Ahmet Muhtar Mollao?lu, was a Turkish statesman and a professional diplomat during the Ottoman Empire. He began his professional foreign Service career in 1891 and served at the Embassy of Athens and Budapest, and later as a Turkish Ambassador in the USA. He was appointed as Ambassador of the new Republic of Turkey to the Soviet Union, and was stationed in Moscow in 1923-1924. It was during those two years that the present lot was most likely acquired.