Feodor Rückert shaded cloisonné enamel letter or paper holder, Moscow, 1899-1908

Silver, gilding, enamel

6 1/2 x 5 3/4 in. (16.5 x 14.5 cm)

Inv. no. ab_0024

Exhibited: 

Moscow, Gosudarstvennyi istoriko-kulʹturnyi muzei-zapovednik "Moskovskii Kremlʹ", “Karl Faberzhe i Fedor Riukert. Shedevry russkoi emali,” 9 October 2020 – 14 February 2021, no. 33.

Publications:

Muntyan, T.N. Karl Faberzhe i Fedor Riukert. Shedevry russkoi emali. Moscow: Gosudarstvennyi istoriko-kulʹturnyi muzei-zapovednik "Moskovskii Kremlʹ", 2020. Cat. no. 33, p. 51.

This richly dressed young soldier standing before a fortress door was meant to guard papers or letters on some well-appointed desk around the turn of the last century. He has been identified as a rynda, a member of the group of guards, sometimes described as bodyguards, for the grand princes or tsars of Muscovy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While this young man is dressed in colorful fabrics, a rynda’s coat and boots were in fact made of white fabrics, usually worn over ermine. In this case, his silk brocades set with gemstones harmonize better than would a caftan in white. To underline the holder’s protective function, the door is locked with a heavy padlock from which hangs a large wax seal stamped with the Roman numerals XVII, possibly a reference to the century depicted. That section of the base visible in front of the outermost hinged wall has been enameled in imitation of floor tiles and set with a small, gilded silver lip in order to hold pencils or pens in place. The reverse was also decorated for the pleasure of the person who might see it from the opposite side: the back panel has been pierced and engraved with a pattern of birds set among interlace ornament and engraved with the owner’s initials.