PORCELAIN AND CORAL EWER Saint Petersburg, from the time of Tsar Nicholas I (1820–1855). The model for the coral service in Peterhof Palace, ca. 1836. Modeled from a shell with a coral-shaped handle painted red. Painted with floral decoration in gold, the shell with purple-colored edging, the opening and the rim gilt. Underglaze blue mark NI surmounted by a crown. H 19.5 cm. Provenance: Private collection, Zurich. The model comes from a service known as the Coral Service, consisting of a tea service and a toilet service, which was made in 1836 during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I for the Znamenka country estate for his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and was later kept in the Tsaritsa Pavilion in Peterhof. The exact source references (“Inventory of objects of predominantly artistic value” by D. V. Grigorovich from 1885, cat. Peterhof 2023, p. 240), which describe the interior in Znamenka, cite the coral service and two ewers that stood on a table in the living room of Znamenka (Catalogue Peterhof 2023, p. 248), today two, apparently the same ones, are known from Peterhof Palace (Catalogue Peterhof 2023, p. 250, Cat. 133, p. 251, Cat. 131). The third ewer, i.e. the one on offer must therefore be a special order of unknown origin placed with the manufactory. The decoration of the ewer on offer differs slightly in the area of the shell base, but is otherwise almost identical in shape and decoration to the corresponding pieces of the coral service. Peterhof was the favorite residence of Tsar Nicholas I (1796–1855) and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (1798–1860), born Charlotte of Prussia and daughter of King Frederick William III of Prussia (1770–1840). cf. Irina Pashchinskaya, Peterhof - Der Garten auf der Zarizyn Insel (Peterhof - The Garden on Tsaritsyn Island), Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Leipzig 2004, p. 67ff; l. V.V. Levshenkov, Kaiserliches Porzellan 1744–2009 (Imperial Porcelain 1744–2009), St. Petersburg Orchestra 2009, ill. p. 69; State Historical Museum Peterhof, Masterpieces of the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory from the Estate of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Znamenka, Moscow 2023, pp. 238–241.