A PAIR OF RUSSIAN IMPERIAL CRATER VASES, IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY, ST. PETERSBURG, PERIOD OF ALEXANDER II (1855-1881), POSSIBLY BASED ON A DESIGN BY AUGUST KARL SPIESS each vase with a seafoam-colored glaze, the central registers featuring a panoramic old master scene en grisaille; the versos with scrolling laurel and acanthus leaves surrounding a ribboned lyre, the cover of each vase with a molded pinecone finial, each with ornate gilded scrollwork with acanthus leaves and lotus flowers, green underglaze imperial cypher under base of each; height of each: 52.5 cm (20 5/8 in.) LOT NOTES The vases closely resemble a sketch by August Spiess in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, reproduced in Ekaterina Khmelnitskaya, August Spiess and the Imperial Porcelain Factory: A Life Dedicated to Porcelain, (Moscow: Liubimaya Kniga, 2012), p. 47, ill. 29