Gaming Set, Probably Made for the Russian Court

This richly decorated gaming box ranks among the most exceptional works of art produced by the Du Paquier Porcelain Manufactory during its short twenty-five-year existence. Mounted with gold plaques and painted with colored enamels and gilding, the box opens to reveal four small, similarly decorated porcelain containers. These smaller boxes are mounted with gold and set with diamonds; each, when opened, reveals two types of porcelain gambling chips. The boxes were painted according to a complex, tightly organized decorative scheme. The lid of the large box depicts three trompe l’oeil playing cards that appear to have been carelessly thrown down. Each of the corners of the box and lid is painted with a network of violet and gold ornaments characteristic of the factory’s mature, late-Baroque style. With its liberal use of gold and diamonds, this work was certainly among the most extravagant objects crafted at the Du Paquier manufactory. The box may have been presented as a diplomatic gift, perhaps from the Austrian Habsburgs to their Russian Romanov counterparts.