The State Hermitage Museum: Exhibitions

Masterpieces of Oriental filigree of the 17th –19th centuries in the Hermitage

The collection of the Hermitage counts more than 150 pieces of Asian silver filigree of the 17th-19th centuries. Europeans admired the thinnest filigree created by Oriental jewellers. In the 17th-19th centuries there were several centres of its production in China, South-East Asia and India. It was not only the symbol of power and prosperity, but also the way to invest money. The filigree objects were rarities and the objects of desire for the collectors. They were exhibited in the early kunstkameras, interiors of the palaces, treasuries of the churches and were even used as diplomatic gifts. Rare silver filigree objects were the privilege of the nobility and rich people both in the Orient and Europe. The "cabinets of filigree" existed in many palaces of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is worth mentioning some of them. Louis XIV had it in Versailles, Frederick I Wilhelm in Berlin, and Queen Charlotte had a collection of filigree articles in the old Buckingham Palace. But all these collections of filigree do not exist any more. They had disappeared. Today the largest existing collection of the Oriental filigree of the 17th and 18th centuries is preserved in the Hermitage.

An interest in Oriental exotica was born at the Russian court in the 17th century. It flourished at the time of Peter I and Catherine the Great up to the 19th century as chinoiserie style in Imperial gardens, architecture, interiors and the objects themselves. The silver trade was the privilege of the state. In St Petersburg the silver filigree was kept in the 18th century in the palace stores, and was used by the monarchs, but from the second half of the century during the reign of Catherine the Great it was already exhibited in the Galleries of the Hermitage. The 18th century inventory kept the information for us.

The collection of the Hermitage boasts the silver filigree objects of the 17th-19th centuries of China, in different centres of India and South-East Asia. Nearly all of them are made in the technique of openwork filigree with the flattened ribbons of wires of various diameters. The export silver has different shapes and ornaments from typically European to the traditionally Oriental. The earliest objects of Indian jewellers are the goblets of coconut shell and silver, while the earliest Chinese ones are the silver caskets dating back to the 17th century, to the time of Alexei Mikhailovich. Indian and Chinese filigree of the early 18th century that was in the possession of Peter the Great is also preserved in the Hermitage. Among the objects of luxury were mirrors and toilet sets of the middle of the 18th century of Chinese and Indian make that belonged to Catherine the Great. The collection embraces the silver filigree items as well as the big sets of the 17th-19th centuries and gives rather full understanding of the development of filigree in the East.

Big casket
Middle of the 17th century
Larger view