14: The Bedchamber of Daria Menshikova

The function of this room has only been provisionally determined, by analogy with the Prince's apartments. The interior is adorned by rare Chinese silk wall-hangings installed in frames so that they could be moved. The painting on the late-17th or early-18th-century silk produced in Canton for sale on the European market uses landscape motifs, attributes of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire and propitious symbols. The ceiling is decorated with paintings that copies the second layer found on the ceiling of Menshikov's Walnut Study in the 1990s. The lacquer bureau produced in China in the early 18th century was restored at the end of that century by Russian craftsmen who had by then mastered the technique of Oriental lacquer-work. The room also contains three pieces of black-lacquer furniture: two cabinets of Chinese origin, displayed on one of which are items from a glass toilet set discovered during the restoration of the palace, and also a tea-table with a removable tray produced in Russia.