MINIATURE BELL DEPICTING TSAR KOLOKOL (Tsar of Bells) in 800 - Lot 379

Lot 379
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2000 - 3000 EUR
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Result : 2 400EUR
MINIATURE BELL DEPICTING TSAR KOLOKOL (Tsar of Bells) in 800 - Lot 379
MINIATURE BELL DEPICTING TSAR KOLOKOL (Tsar of Bells) in 800° silver /°°, assayed at 84 zolotnik, finished in a natural patina based on the original master bell commissioned in 1733 and delivered in 1735, notably including its imposing crack. It is adorned with portraits of Empress Anna Ivanovna (1693–1740), who commissioned the work, and Tsar Alexei I (1629–1676), her paternal grandfather, both surmounted by saints, their figures interspersed with canopies supported by angels, one of whom is engraved in Slavonic. The interior is engraved with a Cyrillic inscription reading: “Height 20 feet and 7 inches. Cast in 1733, weighing 480,000 pounds.” Complete with its clapper. Work by Robert KOKUN, Saint Petersburg, active from 1874 to 1883. Height: approximately 15.5 cm. Diameter: 10.2 cm. Weight: 490.3 g. (The cross at the top is broken and has been rewelded; scattered dents; oxidation). History: The Tsar Kolokol is a master bell weighing over 200 metric tons, standing over 6 meters tall with a diameter of the same size. Cast in 1735 by a team of 200 men, supervised by master craftsman Ivan Motorin, and later by his son Mikhail. The ornamentation is the work of the sculptors Kobelev, Galkin, Kokhtev, Serebryakov, and Lukovnikov. In 1737, following a fire, the bell shattered as it fell from the belfry where it was housed. The bell, weakened by the heat of the fire, partially shattered under its own weight. A fragment weighing nearly 11.5 metric tons broke off. The bell, which had fallen into the casting pit, was not unearthed until 1836 by the architect Auguste Ricard de Montferrand, and was placed at its current location, next to the Ivan III Tower. Reference: This souvenir was crafted by a different goldsmith and based on a similar bell, but by the goldsmith Carl Tegelsten; see the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 46101), as well as the collections of André Ruzhnikov (ref. no. RS_024), alongside another created by the House of Fabergé (ref. no. FB_061).
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