A gilt-bronze-mounted rhodentite and nephrite tazza, after a design by IVAN HALLBERG (1778-1863). Russia, circa 1850. Height 28cm. Ivan Hallberg (1778-1863) was a well-known architect and applied artist who worked in groups supporting the leading St Petersburg architects such as Giacomo Quarenghi, Luigi Rusca, Carlo Rossi and Auguste Montferrand. As the architect of the Cabinet of His Imperial Highness, he designed bronze and stoneware for the Imperial Court. This piece is a smaller variant of the malachite tazza currently in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum. The original design by Hallberg was first approved on the 17th October 1842. When the stone work was completed the tazza was sent from Ekaterinburg Lapidary Works to the Chopin Foundry in St. Petersburg to be mounted in bronze. In 1845, the finished piece was delivered to the Winter Palace and immediately an identical tazza was ordered. Originally the pair was destined to be exhibited in the New Hermitage, but was later placed in one of the Rooms of the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna.