Showcase 30. Ambassadorial gifts. Holland

Ambassadorial silver items of the showcase are the work of the finest XVII-th century silversmiths from Amsterdam, Utrecht, the Hague and Leyden. Exhibits reveal all the artistic tendencies of the holland "Golden Age" of arts and represent main styles and techniques of the Dutch goldsmithery.
Holland became the first country where a bourgeois republic was established. The XVIIth century was a period of the Holland efflorescence in science and literature as well as in painting and applied arts. Both beautiful and utilitarian articles of silver and ivory and artistic pottery were used as utensils of everyday life of the rich bourgeoisie.

The Armoury collection of the Dutch silver contains about 140 items, presented by embassies in 1648, 1665 and 1676 and a large group specially commissioned by the merchant Grigory Stroganov. It highlights the key stages in the progress of political relations between Holland and Russia.On several occasions Holland sought Russia's support during the twist and turns of the struggle waged by European Protestantism against the Catholic League during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), during the four Anglo-Dutch wars (1650s-1680s) and during the arduous war against France in the late XVIIth century.

Having been intended for ambassadorial donations, the artworks were executed as large pieces of virtue and richly decorated with chasing, pouncing, gilding. Smooth polished surface of tableware and utensils was usually executed in several lobes in combination with embossed patterns, engravings of tulips, daffodils etc., a popular decorative motif in Dutch silverwork of the XVIIth century. Elements of the decor were further embellished with knorpelwerk (cartilaginous) ornament, widely used in Dutch decoration up to the end of the XVIIth century.