i8 
Land & Water 
February 21, 191 8 
English Silver Cistern. 
Once the property of the Duchess of Kingston. 
for the (act thai seven prints of the same subject had been 
sent but adding that they were all proofs in different states, 
and that of three of the proofs Sayer was sending the only 
impressions that had been taken. He therefore hoped that 
Her Imperial Majesty would consider he had done right m 
forwarding them ! These wonderful prints had been so 
seldom shown to visitors and were so scrupulously tended 
that their velvety surface was in marvellous condition, 
and the chief workers in 
mezzotint were repre- 
sented in these boxes by 
their choicest examples, 
all with full margin, many 
of them far exceeding in 
merit even the famous 
examples in the Cheyles- 
more collection in the 
British Museum. Periodi- 
callv each, with its owti bit 
of tissue paper, had been 
exposed to light and air 
and then returned to its 
shelter, and so, treated with 
the utmost discretion, the 
prints were in absolutely 
unequalled condition. 
Another branch of Eng- 
lish art which interested 
the Empress Catherine was 
that of horology, and to 
see the grandest examples 
of the art of the English 
watchmaker of the eigh- 
teenth century it was 
necessary to travel to the 
Winter Palace. I have had 
all the examples in my hands. There were no finer watches 
in Europe. The movements were all by the greatest English 
makers— Quare, Tompion, Graham, Wagstaff, Harrison, East, 
and others — and of the highest quality, while many of them 
were set with jewels of great value and adorned with chate- 
laines, pendants, and chains of equally rich ornamentation. 
Several were musical watches or repeaters, many with 
double and even triple cases, most of them with diamond 
thumb-pieces, and 
a great many set 
with emeralds and 
sapphires of sur- 
passing brilliance 
and glory. 
The Empress 
was also much in- 
terested in Eng- 
lish ceramics, the 
great service which 
she had made by 
Wedgwood, and 
which .was con- 
sidered of suffi- 
cient importance 
to warrant a book 
being written spe- 
cially about it, 
being of unusual 
value. This service 
was at Peterhof, 
and it fell to my lot 
to be the means of 
its rediscovery in 
an underground 
pantry where it 
had bp.en forgotten, 
given up for lost 
for nearly loo 
years. Over 700 
pieces still re- 
mained out of the 
thousand which 
comprised the ser- 
Ruins of lona Cathedral, Isles of Mull. 
Fountains, York, Windsor Castle, Berkeley, Kew, Hampstead, 
Stanton Harcourt, and many other places which give in- 
formation how they looked in Wedgwood's time, and for 
which in many instances we have no other drawings for 
comparison. That great service was not, however, the only^ 
set 1 saw in Russia. There were at least four other important 
services of Wedgwood ware that I inspected, besides dinner 
services of Chelsea and Worcester porcelain of the grandest 
quality, and shelves full 
of fine examples of Bristol, 
Bow, Chelsea, Swansea, 
Salopian, Derby and Nant- 
garw ware, and one cup- 
board entirely full of the 
best examples of salt glaze. 
Amongst the Emperor's 
own personal collection of 
treasures I saw two fine 
examples of early English 
metal work and rock cry- 
stal which by critics have 
been given to as remote a 
period as that of Anglo- 
Saxon times, one a cup, 
the other a sceptre or 
mace, and many other 
fine objects in rock crystal 
and silver or gold, the most 
notable of which was a 
crystal cup made to the- 
order of Henry VIII. and 
sent out by his messenger 
to Anne of Cleves, and 
which in some mysterious 
manner had found its way 
to Russia. I also noticed 
some good English carvings in horn and in woodwork. One 
palace in Russia has always been known as the English 
Palace, and in it there were, many fine examples of English 
furniture, some of which Lord Malmesbury referred to, in his 
Letters. There vere sorr;e splendid oak tables of Elizabethan 
and Stuart work, and many choice examples of the work of 
Chippendale, Sheraton, Ince and Mayhew, and Hepplewhite, ' 
while in one of the southern palaces I saw a suite of Stuart 
furniture of unique 
importance. 
Another room 
was entirely de- 
voted to Chip- 
pendale's most ex- 
travagant Chinese 
style of furniture, 
four-post bedstead, 
table, chairs, cabi- 
net, stools and 
writing tables. 
The English pic- 
tures in Russia 
were in most in- 
stances the paint- 
ings which came 
from the fine Wal- 
pole collection at 
Houghton Hall 
and a few others 
sold to the Em- 
press by Dr. Crich- 
ton. .Amongst 
them were import- 
ant works by Rey- 
nolds, a celebrated 
portrait of Crom- 
well by Walker, 
and fine paintings 
by Gainsborough, 
Lely, Dobson, and 
Kneller. In the 
Emperor's own 
library at Tsarkoe 
vice, and each piece was ornamented with views of English Selo I saw many English books, first editions of some of the 
houses and landscapes, while many of the larger pieces had most notable of the eighteenth cehtury writers. 
upon them many such views. Colour prints made their appeal in Russia. There is no 
These decorations, charmingly executed in a dull mauve 
colour, illustrated the great houses of the English country- 
side, ruined castles, village churches, and especially re- 
markable buildings in London, a large proportion of which 
have now p)assed away. 
There were unique representations of London Bridge, 
Somerset House, Mile End Road, the Mall, Northumberiand 
House, Alnwick, Appleby, Wardour, Holkham, Kirkham, 
such set of Wheatley's Cries of London, no such group of 
Morland's Laetitia series, no such examples of Cosway coloured 
prints as in one solander box in the Winter Palace, and I have 
never handled colour prints of such glorious colour, or with 
such margins as those which the Empress Catherine had from 
London when they were being produced in their glory, and 
which ever since were retained for the delectation of the 
favoured few and were kept in perfect order. 
