艺术导赏

Another important rediscovered piece is this tea set that is made of silver using the traditional Russia art of “niello” , which is darkening of silver.

In the middle of this dish, you see the panoramic view of the Kremlin including the imperial palace and on the left, is in fact the Armory which still houses our museum.

So this set has a HK connection, what is it? The Grand Duke Alexei, who was the son of Alexander III, was sent on a journey to many countries in the East. There was a love story behind it because due to his position in the family, he had to marry a foreign princess but he fell in love with a Russian girl. So in order for him to forget about his love, he was ordered to go on a long journey, so he visited many countries including Hong Kong.

This tea and coffee set was given to the governor of Hong Kong at that time, Governor Kennedy, and his wife and it was in the Governor family for a while. And we can now see there is an engraving on one of the pieces that said the Queen Victoria once enjoyed tea from this set.

Then somehow this set resurfaced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. An Italian art dealer gave this set to the wife of Soviet President, Gorbachev as a gift and she passed it over to our museum. And now it came back to HK as exhibits.