Highly important monumental silver tea kettle-on-stand and a serving tray from a service made for Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna

Francois-Désiré Froment-Meurice (1801-1855), France, around 1848-1851, with French export marks and Russian early 20th century import marks for foreign silver

Francois-Désiré Froment-Meurice (1801-1855), France, around 1848-1851, with French export marks and Russian early 20th century import marks for foreign silver
comprising a very large fluted kettle embossed and chased with shaped reserves, shell motifs and foliage against textured net background, plain fluted silver collar applied with beaded monogram 'EM' under the Russian Imperial crown, shaped up-right handle cast and chased with clusters of garden flowers, delicately rendered grapevine leaves and scrolls, top of the handle outfitted with a modern replacement of the bone insulation band, slip-on domed lid decorated en suite and mounted with sculptural finial of two love birds amidst grapevine cluster; highly decorative stand modelled as intertwined and undulating grapevines with numerous clusters of hanging grapes and delicately chased leaves forming unusually lively and elaborate ornamental arrangement in Rococo revival style, centred with a removable circular fluted oil burner and a holder for burner cord; a monumental rectangular tray with shaped borders and a pair of scroll handles similarly decorated with highly sculptural band of flowers, clusters of grapes, rocaille motifs, and centred with a large engraved monogram 'EM' under the Russian Imperial crown against finely engraved geometric pattern within scrolled border, 88 standard (4)
tray: 88.9 x 66.7cm (35 x 26 1/4in); height of kettle including handle: 40.6cm (16in).

Provenance
Made for or acquired by Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna (1827-1894) as part of eleven-piece silver tea service, circa 1850
Probably by descent from above to her daughter, Grand Duchess Elena Georgievna, Princess Saxe-Altenburg
Nationalised as part of Imperial family's belongings, transferred to Hermitage and de-accessioned for sale in late 1920s
Acquired by US State Senator Edward C. Finch during his trip to The Soviet Union in late 1920s
Sold by the wife of Senator E.C. Flinch to a private collector in San Francisco, circa 1940
Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited
Washington, DC., Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens, 17 February-30 December 2018, partially in conjunction with exhibition The Artistic Table

Identification of the monogram and attribution of the service are based on the research by Dr. Wilfried Zeisler, Chief Curator of Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens, Washington, DC.

Dr. Zeisler identified the present kettle on stand and a tray as numbers 37 and 38 as part of a large eleven-piece silver tea service listed as part of the property transferred from the collection of princely family of Saxe-Altenburg into State Hermitage collection in 1922 (Archive of State Hermitage, Fund 1, opis V (part II), document 267, for year 1922, page 10).

Further for commissions completed by Francois-Désiré Froment-Meurice for the Russian nobility see: Wilfried Zeisler, "Les orfèvres parisiens au service de la Russie au 19e siècle" in Annie Charon, Bruno Delmas, and Armelle Le Goff, ed., La France et les Français en Russie au 19e siècle. Paris, Ecole nationales des Chartes, 2011: 313-339, p. 320, footnote 38.