A large porcelain vase from the Service of the Order of St Alexander Nevsky, Imperial Porcelain Factory, St Petersburg, period of Alexander II, circa 1856

The service was one of four originally commissioned from the Gardner Factory by Catherine the Great (the other three being those of St Andrew the First Called, St George and St Vladimir) to be used during annual receptions held at the Winter Palace for the knights of each order. The Empress had been inspired to order the services after receiving a gift from Prince Friedrich II of Prussia of a porcelain dessert service crafted by the Berlin Porcelain Manufactory. It was then Gavriil Kozolov (1738-1791) who was charged with designing the four Russian services based on the German precedent. Kozlov created elaborate sketches for each piece to include the images of the cross, breast star, ribbon and motto of its relevant Order, which were then sent from his workshop in St Petersburg to the Verbilki plant to be rendered into porcelain.

The Service of the Order of St Alexander Nevsky originally comprised pieces for 60 place settings, for banquets that would be held on 30 August, the official holiday of the Order. The Order itself had been envisioned by Peter the Great, but officially founded after his death by Catherine I in 1725 to coincide with the transfer of the relics of Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky to St Petersburg.

When Alexander II came to the throne, he commissioned additions to the existing order services from the Imperial Porcelain Factory to increase the capacity for each service. This included larger porcelain pieces, such as the present vase. Large, centrepiece-type works from the Order Services are extremely rare, though a few are held within important museum collections.

The Hillwood Museum features a handful of comparative pieces in its collection after designs by August Spiess, all of which were bequeathed to the museum by Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1973: two candelabra from the Order of St Alexander Nevsky, the same service as the present vase (catalogue nos. 25.20.1 and 25.20.2); two candelabra from the Order of St George (catalogue nos. 25.8.1 and 25.8.2). Post's collection had searched far and wide for her collection, reportedly purchasing 'enough of all the services to serve at least twelve people for dinner' from sources in eleven separate countries (A. Odom & L. Paredes Arend, A Taste for Splendor: Russian Imperial and European Treasures from the Hillwood Museum, Virginia, 1998, p. 156).

The Hermitage Collection also holds candelabrum from the Orders of St Alexander Nevsky and St George (inv. ЭРФ-5735 and ЭРФ-5736), also after designs by Spiess.

The State Russian Museum has in its possession three candelabra from this same 1856 commission, from the Orders of St Alexander Nevsky, St Vladimir and St Andrew the First Called (State Russian Museums, Фарфор в России ХВИИИ-ХИКС Веков: Завод Гарднера, St Petersburg, 2003, nos. 298, 302 and 293). It also has an impressive vase from the Order of St George (ibid, no. 288), which is highly comparable to the present vase. Whilst the vase from the Order of St George differs from the present vase in form, the Hermitage Collection also includes a vase of a near identical form to this lot, though this is not from an order service (inv. Мз-И-1354).