Tazza

As early as 1765, the Russian government sponsored a geological expedition to the Ural Mountains and Siberia that discovered vast amounts of colored marbles and other decorative minerals and stones. Imperial lapidary works were subsequently established in Peterhof, near St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, a town in the Urals, and Kolyvan, in the Altai Mountains. From the reign of Peter the Great until the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917, numerous European artists and craftsmen traveled to St. Petersburg, attracted by the wealth of the court and the empire's plentiful natural resources.

This "tazza," or saucer-shaped cup, was inspired by an ancient Greek ceramic vase known as a "kylix."