Lot 65: A fine and rare pair of Russian neoclassical ormolu-mounted patinated bronze vases circa 1805, attributed to Friedrich Bergenfeldt

each of tapered cylindrical form with tall neck fitted with a cascading watery rim, flanked by infant tritons supporting shells on their heads, tapering to twist-turned tails, the front centered by a mask of Neptune above a pair of dolphins, the tapered lower part with watery cascades and bullrushes, raised on a rectangular rouge griotte marble base fitted with ormolu swans.

measurements height 23 in.; width 10 1/2 in. alternate measurements 58 cm; 27 cm

Antoine Chenevière, London

This pair of vases belongs to a small group made in St. Petersburg circa 1801-1805. They are all thought to have been made by the most celebrated of the Russian bronziers Friedrich Bergenfeldt after the design executed in 1801 by Andrei Voronikhin (illustrated, A. Kuchumov, Russian Decorative Art in the Collections of the Pavlovsk Palace Museum, 1981, p. 323). Andrei Voronikhin (1759-1814) Voronikhin was born into a family of serfs working on the estates of Count Stroganoff. He trained in painting in the workshop of Gabriel Yushkova, where he drew the attention of the Count who sent him to train in Moscow. Voronikhin was liberated in 1785 and for the next several years studied in France and in Switzerland. Count Stroganoff was one of Voronikhin?s most important patrons; he commissioned the former serf to finish the interiors of the Stroganoff Palace on the Nevskky Prospect, as well as other Stroganov residences. He also built the Kazan Cathedral and worked with Brenna at Pavlovsk. Friedrich Bergenfeldt (1768-1822) Bergenfeld was born in Westphalia and like many other German craftsmen, he moved to Russia in the 1790s. He worked in the workshop of the bronzier Yan Aoustin, and also with Charles Dreyer, followed by a period of time spent in Paris. Returning to Russia in 1801 he established his own workshop on the Fontanka Embankment. His advertisement in the local newspaper announced the sale of all manner of ?bronze ornaments such as vases, candelabra, casolettes, girandoles, chandeliers, veilleuses etc. in the antique taste and of a quality equal to that of French bronzes." Both Voronikhin and Bergenfeldt appear to have been influenced by the work of the Paris bronzier Claude Galle. The Voronikhin design closely resembles a vase made by Galle for Schloss Ludwigsburg in 1800 (reproduced, Ottomeyer & Proschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Vol. I, Munich, 1986, p. 365, fig. 5.12.11). An identical pair of vases on unmounted griotte marble bases and with slight variations in the mounts decorating the socle, was in the collection of Count Stroganoff, sold by the order of the Russian Government, Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, May 12-13, 1931, lots 137-138. The present pair also relate to a larger single vase, signed and dated F. Bergenfeldt a St. Petersburg 1802. This vase, previously sold from a private collection, Christie?s, New York, October 26, 2001, will be offered in the sale immediately following the present sale, May 24, 2007. Another pair of vases similar to the latter single vase is illustrated, Ariane Dandois, L'Empire à travers l'Europe, Paris, 2000, catalogue number 22. Another pair formerly in the collections of the Counts Bobrinski is illustrated, I. Sychev, "Friedrich Bergenfeldt, an Unknown Russian Bronzier," Russian Jeweler, No.1, 1998, p. 31. A further pair is in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, illustrated, M. Chiarini & S. Padovani, Gli Appartamenti Reali di Palazzi Pitti, Florence, 1993, p. 229, fig. II.36. All of these vases are decorated with motifs emblematic of Water, incorporating water cascading over the rims into scallop shells; the Voronikhin design incorporates mermaids at each side which, in the present pair, have been interpreted as infant Tritons.