A Meissen porcelain plate from the St. Andrew service made for Tzarina Elisabeth I
The rim decorated with the imperial Russian coat-of-arms above and the cross of the Order of Saint Andrew below, to the sides with blue morning glories and white daffodils. Blue crossed swords mark, dreher's number 16. Red lacquered cyrillic inventory mark G.4. / 1715. D 24 cm.
Ca. 1744/45, model by Johann Friedrich Eberlein.
In 1745, as a sign of strengthening the Saxon-Russian alliance, the Russian Tzarina Elizabeth I was presented with one of the manufactory's most extensive services, the so-called "St. Andrew Service". Cassidy-Geiger assumes that the announcement of the wedding of the heir to the Russian throne Karl Peter Ulrich von Holstein-Gottorf (later Tzar Peter III Fedorovich) with Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt Zerbst (later Tzarina Katharina II) in February 1745 led to the fact that the service, which had already been in production for six months, was finally presented as a gift for this occasion, the marriage on September 2nd 1745. The tzarina was so proud of the gift that she initially kept the elaborately designed service in her private rooms. It was probably used for the first time on December 12th 1745, for the annual court banquet of the Order of St. Andrew.
Provenance
Private collection, Palatinate.
Literature
For more on this service see Pietsch (ed.), Meißen für die Zaren. Porzellan als Mittel sächsisch-russischer Politik im 18. Jh., Munich 2004, p. 66 ff.
Cf. also Cassidy Geiger, Fragile Diplomacy. Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca. 1710 - 63, New Haven-London 2007, p. 74 f., fig. 4-22.