Pavel Ovchinnikov was appointed official purveyor to the future Tsar Alexander III (1865), King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (1873), Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich (1878) and King Christian IX of Denmark (1888). He was awarded the Lgion dhonneur (1867) and the Order of the Iron Crown (1873). His firm was a trendsetter on the Russian pre-revolution jewelry market. He revived and developed the art of producing enamels. Thin layers of enamel over filigree were applied to the company's dinnerware and icon rizas: the ornament would be created with the use of a silver thread, and the spaces between the individual threads would be filled with enamel of different colors. This was even more complex than the "stained-glass" enamel technique pioneered by Ovchinnikov. Without any solid base, this enamel looked like a glass painting in a Gothic cathedral if held up to light. The company also used the ancient niello technique to create engravings of the Kremlin and Moscow cathedrals. One of the firm's most prominent works was a luxurious icon screen, made of silver and gold, for the Kremlin's Dormition Cathedral. Ovchinnikov was one of the first entrepreneurs of the 19th century to realize the importance of artistic education, and he founded a school for talented young people to study goldsmithery for five or six years. The combination of the zolotnik and city marks together in the oblong oval marking, as seen on this piece, was used between 1882-1899. The "84" tells us that the piece is in at least .875 silver (87.5% pure silver so just under the .925 standard for "sterling" silver). The hammer & sickle mark to the right of that is for the city of St. Petersburg. Larger than the average snuff box, smaller than the average cigar case, this one is missing the original ribbons on the inside that would have held the cigarettes or cheroots in each side but that's easily fixed if you so wish. A lovely piece, an exquisite stocking stuffer :)
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