SILVER-GILT IMPERIAL PRESENTATION KOVSH Moscow, 1744 WITH THE DEDICATORY INSCRIPTION : ‘BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE, ELIZABETH THE FIRST EMPRESS AND AUTOCRAT OF ALL RUSSIA, PRESENT THIS KOVSH TO PANTELEI SELIVANY CAPTAIN OF THE DON COSSACK FOR HIS FAITHFUL SERVICE IN MOSCOW IN 1744 JULY 28’

Kovsh of traditional shape, with engraved Imperial double-headed eagle with the monogram of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, adorned with laurel wreath. The sides engraved with cartouches with dedicatory inscriptions. the prow with double-headed eagle finial, the handle replaced with a later engraved handle centering a medallion of the Empress under a canopy-form border Hallmark: master’s mark in Cyrillic silver, engraved, gilt L. 27.5 cm Provenance: Pantelei Selivanov By descent within the family Vladimir Nikolaevich [Trotskii-]Seniutovitch (1877-1957) (Vladimir Trotskii-Seniutovich, a petroleum engineer who worked for the Nobel Company, had inherited the kovsh and took it with him when he and his family went into exile) Thence by descent Sotheby’s London, 2015, 1744 Private collection