BY KARL TEGELSTEIN FOR NICHOLS & PLINKE, SAINT-PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1840

The St. Petersburg workshop of the Finnish-born bronzier, Karl Tegelstein (d. 1852, also spelled Carl Tegelsten), is renowned for the supply of various Imperial silver commissions, and most notably the manufacture of three magnificent gilt bronze chandeliers, initially intended for the Malachite Hall in the Winter Palace, and later transferred to the Golden Drawing Room, in the Empress Maria Alexandrovna’s quarters (now part of the State Hermitage Museum). All of the bronze work produced by the firm was directed by the 'English Shop'; this trading house, founded in 1789, was owned by William Plincke and Carl Nichols by 1800 (I. Sychev, Russian Bronze, Moscow, 2003, p. 151). In 1854, and in view of the Crimean War, the name ‘English Shop’ was dropped, and with the Emperor’s permission the company became ‘Nichols and Plincke’. This malachite gueridon table, supported on a finely chased gilt bronze stand, is undoubtedly inspired by antiquity, and the later 'antique' designs of Piranesi (1778), and Percier & Fontaine (1801).