In the 1840s and 1850s the court commissioned many works from the Kolyvan Lapidary Works in connection with the construction of the new museum in St Petersburg. The plan for its decoration allotted a considerable role to articles made of colourful stone. Six pairs of stone vases produced at the works in the Altai region were installed on the upper landing of the Main Staircase. One of those vases, a square bowl cut from green wavy Revno works jasper was soon sent for display at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 where it was generally acknowledged as an excellent piece of work. The Kolyvan Lapidary Works was awarded a second-rank medal of its part in the exhibition. The commissioner of the exhibition expressed doubt whether such difficult and well-finished works had ever been produced since the Ancient Greeks and Romans.