Moscow Kremlin Museums:

SEDAN CHAIR

Sedan chair
Paris (?), 1760-1770s.; painting of the 18^th-19^th cc.; taffeta – of the 19th c.
Maple, taffeta; wood carving, oil painting, gilding on gesso.

It was transferred from the Rumyantsev Museum to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
Acquired by the Armoury Chamber from this museum in 1924.
Painting and carved décor on the wall of the body
Sedan chair. Paris (?), 1760-1770s. Fragment
Portrait of Empress Catherine II. The Romanovs Tercentenary Easter Egg. Fragment
Saint Petersburg, 1913.
House of Fabergé, master H. Wigström, artist Zuev Vasily Ivanovich.
Gold, silver, brilliants, rose-cut diamonds, purpurine, steel, glass, turquoise, rock crystal, ivory.
Casting, watercolour, enamel, chasing, engraving, guilloché, blueing, gilding.

A gift of Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna on the 1913 Easter.

The sedan chair is a one-seater conveyance that is carried. The classical style is clearly evident here. The body has an elegant, well-proportioned and somewhat severe form, but its back wall has retained the smooth graceful curve found in conveyances built when Rococo was a prevailing fashion. The new classical motifs and forms took some time to oust those characteristic of preceding decades. The windows and upper half of the doors contain plate glass. In keeping with the new principles, the master achieved the desired artistic effect without including the abundance of carved details in the décor. The constructional elements of the sedan chair are covered with fine, remarkably harmonious pattern and wood carving gilded with reddish gold. The quiet rhythm of the ornament is based on a regular alteration of foliate motifs and pastoral attributes. The treatment of the walls and doors is particularly effective. Their gently shimmering gilded surface is painted with a diamond pattern of intertwined ribbons and small roses. On the door and back wall is an elaborate crest on an oval shield under a crown. The inside walls are upholstered with pale lemon capitone silk and buttons of the same material.

Sedan chairs date back to ancient times. They first appeared in China and India. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, these light vehicles were popular in the countries of Western Europe. They do not appear to have been used in Russia. А report to the Palace Stables Chancellery mentions that the sedan chair came to Russia as a present for Catherine the Great. It was preserved in the collection of a famous collector Zubalov in the 19th century, then transferred to the Rumyantsev Museum. Later the equipage was acquired by The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, from where it passed on to the Armoury Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin in 1924.