Moscow Kremlin Museums:

Dish

Cellular dish
Russia, Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin workshops, 1641-1660.
Silver, engraving, gilding, embossing.

Belonged to Patriarch Joseph.
Cellular dish
Russia, Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin workshops, 1641-1660.
Silver, engraving, embossing, gilding.

Belonged to Patriarch Joseph.
Cellular dish
Russia, Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin workshops, 1691-1700.
Silver, engraving.

Belonged to Tsars Peter and Ivan and Tsarevna Sophia.
Dish
Russia, Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin workshops, 1561.
Gold, forging, embossing, niello.

Belonged to Tsarina Maria Temryukovna.
Dish
Russia, Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin Museums, XVIIth century.

Belonged to Tsarina Nataliya Naryshkina.
Dish
Russia, Moscow, the Moscow Kremlin workshops, XVIIth century.
Silver, engraving, gilding.

Belonged to Tsar Ivan Alekseyevich.

Dishes used for holding food and eating were one of the most important part of the court tableware. Variety of their forms and decor can be explained by diversity of dishes served on them. Large silver dishes were decorated with inscriptions in their edges, engraving, precious stones and "spoons" (flat lobes therein). Gold dishes were executed for ceremonial occasions, i.e. coronation or Tsar's wedding. These utensils, as other precious vessels, were granted as gifts or inheritance.

A fine example is a round gold dish from the Armoury collection (img. 2). It has become a wedding present from Ivan the Terrible to Tsarina Maria Temryukovna as could be seen from the inscription round the edge. Such dishes were used to bring the bride her kika(headdress), wedding dress and also to serve special wedding food. The artwork of an extremely simple form is refined in workmanship. Its edge is finished with a band of delicate niello. The perfect ornamental decoration, including flat lobes and niello inscription on a smooth rim of the dish, was repeated by many generations of the Moscow makers in their work.