the bowl flattened tapering cylindrical and on three wirework ball feet, with spatulate handle, overall with vari-colour enamel flowers and foliage on a white ground, the centre similarly decorated and heightened with a bird, within beaded border, the handle with a winged horse
13.3cm wide over handle

Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 10 December 1974, lot 201.
Christie's, New York, 21 October 2003, lot 141.

In 17th century Russia the work of goldsmiths was, to some extent, organised by the 'silver row' and the Oruzheynaya palate. The former was a term coined due to the fact that the silversmithing trade was set up in a row on the marketplace. These were the only areas where silver could be sold and applied to both Moscow and further afield. The Oruzheynaya palate was connected to the armoury of the Moscow Grand Dukes. Outside of Moscow various workshops were also set up, including at Solvychegodsk, where the Strognov family set one up based on the organisation in Moscow, housing specialists and masters (A. von Solodkoff, Russian Gold and Silver, London, 1981, pp. 19-20).

Items such as the present charka derive their form from wooden utensils of the countryside. In the early part of the 17th century there were made in plain silver but as the century went on the decoration became richer. Initially enamelled using the cloisonné technique but by the end of the century, especially in Solvychegodsk, the cloisonné was giving way to fields of surface enamel with filigree interruptions (op cit., p. 52). The technique that the masters in Solvychegodsk were to champion, which was to become known as Usolsk enamel, featured 'A ground of white enamel is overlaid over the whole surface, on which exuberant drawings are painted with fine strokes in black, mostly of large tulips, camellias, cornflower, and sunflowers. These are coloured in with liquid enamel in yellow, red, blue and pinkish violet'. Von Solodkoff goes on to describe that besides flowers '... there are also animals and birds which include the swan, the pelican, the lion, the bear, the stag, the fox and the sheep.'

The decoration was not limited to charka but was applied to all manner of items, including bowls, see for example one at the British Museum, dated to 1654 (1878,1230.661) and another from the second half of the 17th century (1878,1230.660). Flowers feature heavily on both of those examples as they do on another bowl of the late 17th century (Christie's, London, 23 November 2020, lot 187) and a pair of scent bottles (Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya: The Private Collection, Sotheby's, London, 28 November 2018, lot 3).