The Russian name of the decanter is “shtof”, which means “a large glass” in German. In the Russian Empire, this was the name of the volume of liquid, which was equal to approximately 1.2 liters. Special vessels with a capacity of one bottle were made for strong alcoholic beverages and the decanter from the museum collection is in line with this tradition.
Valentina Sosnovskikh made this decanter in the form of the coat of arms of Russia — a double-headed Imperial Eagle. The artist placed the coat of arms of Moscow on its chest; it is a shield with the image of Saint George. The decanter was made of porcelain and covered with cobalt — a blue pigment. Valentina Sosnovskikh used an underglaze technique to paint the masterpiece: she applied the paint, covered it with a layer of glaze, and then added some gold elements to create a contrast between the soft shades of blue and the glossy gold highlights.
Historians attributed the first mention of the two-headed eagle as the state emblem to the time of the reign of Ivan III. Russia resisted the attack of Khan Akhmat against Moscow and thereby obtained final freedom from the Golden Horde. The era of Ivan III is considered the time when the country was united, and the coat of arms in the form of a double-headed eagle symbolized the supreme power and independence of the state. Scientists found the first image of a double-headed eagle on a barter charter of 1497, which documented the exchange of land. The coat of arms was like the seal of the tsar.
The coat of arms was changing all the time until the revolution of 1917. For example, in the center of the seal of 1562, in the time of Ivan the Terrible, an equestrian image appeared which was one of the oldest symbols of princely power. Then, in 1726, Empress Catherine I fixed the official description of the coat of arms as, “A black eagle with outstretched wings, in a yellow field, a rider in a red field on it.”
The image of the double-headed eagle was used after the February and October Revolutions until July 24, 1918. Then the USSR government abandoned the old symbols and established a new Soviet state emblem. The eagle was replaced with a red shield with the image of the crossing hammer and sickle and the rising sun.
Valentina Sosnovskikh made this decanter in the form of the coat of arms of Russia — a double-headed Imperial Eagle. The artist placed the coat of arms of Moscow on its chest; it is a shield with the image of Saint George. The decanter was made of porcelain and covered with cobalt — a blue pigment. Valentina Sosnovskikh used an underglaze technique to paint the masterpiece: she applied the paint, covered it with a layer of glaze, and then added some gold elements to create a contrast between the soft shades of blue and the glossy gold highlights.
Historians attributed the first mention of the two-headed eagle as the state emblem to the time of the reign of Ivan III. Russia resisted the attack of Khan Akhmat against Moscow and thereby obtained final freedom from the Golden Horde. The era of Ivan III is considered the time when the country was united, and the coat of arms in the form of a double-headed eagle symbolized the supreme power and independence of the state. Scientists found the first image of a double-headed eagle on a barter charter of 1497, which documented the exchange of land. The coat of arms was like the seal of the tsar.
The coat of arms was changing all the time until the revolution of 1917. For example, in the center of the seal of 1562, in the time of Ivan the Terrible, an equestrian image appeared which was one of the oldest symbols of princely power. Then, in 1726, Empress Catherine I fixed the official description of the coat of arms as, “A black eagle with outstretched wings, in a yellow field, a rider in a red field on it.”
The image of the double-headed eagle was used after the February and October Revolutions until July 24, 1918. Then the USSR government abandoned the old symbols and established a new Soviet state emblem. The eagle was replaced with a red shield with the image of the crossing hammer and sickle and the rising sun.
The double-headed eagle became the state emblem again after the collapse of the USSR in 1993. The State Duma adopted the Federal Constitutional Law “On the State Emblem of the Russian Federation” on December 8, 2000, in which the golden double-headed eagle on a red background was finally approved as a state symbol.
