BY NICHOLLS AND PLINKE, WORKMASTER ROBERT KOKHUN, ST. PETERSBURG, 1859

The present sauceboat and stand was created as an addition to the famous Orloff Service. Originally commissioned by Catherine the Great from the French silversmith Jacques Roettiers and his son Jacques-Nicholas, the service was presented to her lover Count Gregory Orloff in 1772. Despite the end of their relationship in 1776, the service remained with Orloff until his death in 1783, at which time it returned to Catherine's possession, and was supplemented by Russian silversmiths throughout the 19th century under successive rulers.

While the service consisted of 3,000 pieces originally, only about 1,000 pieces survived by 1907, when Baron A. de Foelkersam published his inventory of the Russian Imperial silver collections, Inventaire de l'Argenterie conservée dans les garde-meubles des Palais Impériaux. Another sauceboat on stand from this service, stamped with inventory number '291', was sold from the Collection of Robin Bradley Martin at Sotheby's, New York, 17 October 2023, lot 56.