Behind the Scenes

A Wonderful Discovery…

Appraiser Bill Kime just wasn’t satisfied with an appraisal he did in Newfoundland. The guest had a magnificent pair of Russian porcelain plates, which Bill estimated to be worth around $1500-2000 each. But after the tour these plates continued to intrigue him and when he saw the appraisal on the St. John’s show he decided to do some extra research and this is what he discovered (to the delight of their owner!).

“Seeing the Russian plates again on television again, I thought I'd do a little research. The market for Russian works of art is incredibly hot right now... just wondering if I was more or less on the right track... apparently, I wasn't!

It transpires that those plates are from an important service known as the 'Raphael Service', commissioned in 1883 for the Great Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. The decoration is derived from the wall painting in the Raphael Loggia of the Imperial Hermitage, decorated for Catherine II after the original Raphael frescoes in the loggias of the Vatican. The design was developed under the direction of Leonard Leonardovich Schaufelberger, head of the painting workshop at the Imperial Porcelain Factory, with Emperor Alexander III personally supervising the process and even making his own corrections to the designs. Twenty years in the making, the extensive service (for fifty persons!) was completed in 1903. It was transferred for the personal use of Empress Maria Feodrovna to the Anichkov Palace in 1904.

I'd have to stress that the Russian market is extremely hot (possibly overheated) just now... there's a lot of Russian industrialist money out there competing for really good Russian things... I don't think that an estimate of $10-15,000 per plate, or $25-35,000 for the pair would be unreasonable at this point and, as Roger Crowther would say, "If someone really wants them, who knows?... they might bring even more!"