A parcel-gilt silver presentation tazza. The detachable top featuring a border of fruiting vines rests on a baluster column similarly decorated with vine scrolls; the shaped square base raised on four feet chased with acanthus leaves.
The interior of the bowl engraved with the Imperial double-headed eagle encircled by a calligraphic inscription in the Neo-Russian style which reads as follows: State Prize for Trotting Horse-Breeding Stallions, 1849. Further, the piece was awarded as a horse-racing trophy and inscribed in Russian with the name of winning horse and the date of the race: ‘Krolik‘ (‘Rabbit‘ in Russian) and ‘28th February 1854‘.
The firm of Sazikov was one of the most well-regarded jewellery firms of nineteenth-century Russia and one of the greatest innovators in the field. In 1837, Sazikov was appointed official purveyor of silverware to Tsar Nicholas I and in 1844 received the Imperial Warrant. The firm was famous for its tableware and objets de vertu in the Neo-Russian style. In addition to that, Sazikov’s firm produced figurative sculptural works, often representing historical or genre scenes, such as the sculptural group of Prince Dmitry Donskoy and his warriors resting under the tree after the Battle of Kulikovo – the prize-winner of the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. The sculpture was Sazikov’s answer to the historicist groups by Hunt & Roskell.
