A RUSSIAN GILT-BRONZE RHODONITE AND NEPHRITE ATHÉNIENNE, AFTER A DESIGN BY I.I. GALBERG (1778-1863) SECOND QUARTER OF THE 19TH CENTURY, PROBABLY BY THE PETERHOF IMPERIAL LAPIDARY WORKS

This charming athénienne, attributed to the Yekaterinburg Lapidary Works, belongs to a group of which the model was designed by the Swedish architect and draftsman Ivan I. Galberg (1778-1863). A similar example to the present lot is in the collections of Tsarkskoie Selo (see E. Ducamp, Tsarskoie Selo, 2010, p.189).

A large malachite model is in the Hermitage Museum, and its preparatory drawing by Galberg is published in N.Mavrodina, The State Hermitage Museum, The Art of Russian Stone Carvers 18th-19th centuries, pp. 250-251, E.86. The design for it was approved on the 17th October of 1842. When the stone work was completed the athénienne was sent from the Ekaterinburg Lapidary Works to Chopin Foundry in St. Petersburg to be mounted in bronze. In 1845, the finished piece was delivered to the Winter Palace and immediately an identical piece was ordered. Originally the pair was intended to be exhibited in the New Hermitage,m but was later placed in one of the Rooms of the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.

One rhodonite and nephrite athénienne sold Sotheby's New York, 22 October 2014, lot 253 ($23,750); another sold Sotheby's London, 12 June 2008, lot 696 (£25,000); a version of antigorite and porphyry was offered Sotheby's London, 8 December 2004, lot 43.