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Lot Essay
The previously known surviving pieces from this garniture are a rifle and a blunderbuss each preserved in The Hermitage Museum (Inv. Nos. Z.O 731 and 5578). See Valentin Mavrodin, Fine Arms from Tula, New York 1977, plates 103-108. Also see L. Tarassuk, Antique European and American Firearms at the Hermitage Museum, 1971, cat. no. 287
It would seem likely that Johann Christoph Kuchenreuter inlaid his signature in place of the original Tula inscription having refurbished this pistol within its early working life.
General-in-Chief Krechetnikov was a veteran of The Seven Years' War and the Russian First Turkish War. He was a talented administrator, rising from Governor of Tver (appointed 1773) to Deputy Viceroy of both Kaluga and Tula provinces (appointed 1776), and to Steward of Malorossia (The Ukraine).
Krechetnikov was also Chairman of the Commitee for the Reorganisation of the Tula Arms Factory, an appointment which may well have been commemorated by the presentation of this garniture.
A portrait of Mikhail Krechetnikov by Dmitry Levitsky is also in The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
It would seem likely that Johann Christoph Kuchenreuter inlaid his signature in place of the original Tula inscription having refurbished this pistol within its early working life.
General-in-Chief Krechetnikov was a veteran of The Seven Years' War and the Russian First Turkish War. He was a talented administrator, rising from Governor of Tver (appointed 1773) to Deputy Viceroy of both Kaluga and Tula provinces (appointed 1776), and to Steward of Malorossia (The Ukraine).
Krechetnikov was also Chairman of the Commitee for the Reorganisation of the Tula Arms Factory, an appointment which may well have been commemorated by the presentation of this garniture.
A portrait of Mikhail Krechetnikov by Dmitry Levitsky is also in The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.