GARDEN OPEN CARRIAGE

Garden Open Carriage
Moscow, the 1725-1730s; cloth – Moscow, the 20th c.
Oak, cloth, copper, iron; oil painting, chalk ground gilding, wood carving.

It belonged to Empress Anna Ioannovna. In 1797, it was moved from Saint Petersburg to Moscow Coach Yard. Acquired by the Armoury Chamber from the Moscow Coach Yard in 1834
Garden open carriage. Before the restoration
Moscow, the 1725-1730s; cloth – Moscow, the 20th c.
Portrait of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The Romanov 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, bone, watercolour, enamel. Casting, enamel, watercolour, chasing, engraving, guilloché, blueing, gilding.

A gift of Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna on Easter 1913.
Painting on the wall of the body. Portrait of Anna Ioannovna (?)
Garden open carriage. Moscow, the 1725-1730s. Fragment

The two-seater open carriage is executed for Empress Anna Ioannovna in the 1730s in Russia. The composition, décor features and comparative analysis of similar equipages testify to this dating. It is impossible to say for sure, where the carriage was executed, since at that time the equipage workshops were present both in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. However, the documents prove that in 1728-1732 the best masters had left St Petersburg and following the tsar court moved to Moscow or other European capitals. At the same time the workshops in the Moscow Kremlin were continuing their active work.

The 1770’s inventory list of horse harnesses and carriages present in the Kremlin Coach Yard mentions the garden carriage which had been executed here in the early 18th century as ‘a model for new similar equipages’. According to this and other materials from the Palace Stables Chancellery, this carriage was most probably created by the masters of the Moscow Kremlin Reserve Yard.

The carriage is an open one for two people and has no roof or doors, it shows Baroque features and is elegantly beautiful. The body is finely curved at the top and the lower section of the wall. The décor makes use of gilded and profiled wavy sheaves, carved relief shells, foliate scrolls, and also painting. On the walls are the emblem of the Russian state and a female figure in a frame of scrolls and cartouches against a green background. Judging from the iconography the figure is Empress Anna. One can see an attempt in the painting to convey an outward resemblance to the model. Portraiture began to appear in carriage-building in the first quarter of the 18th century. The carriage is not particularly sumptuous, not is its décor very elegant. This somewhat unusual treatment of an imperial conveyance is probably explained by the fact that it was used for riding round the palace garden. This, in its turn, is also reflected in its construction. It is small and the wheels have large rims so as not to spoil the paths. The structural principles of the décor may have been determined by the person who commissioned the carriage. Documents in the Armoury confirm that the carriage was made for Empress Anna in Moscow.

It was renovated not long afterwards, in the 1740s. The upholstery of green woollen fabric was replaced by a subdued shade of crimson velvet. This is also confirmed by surviving fragments of the green fabric. The carriage was restored in 1994. It has now acquired its original form once more with features of accentuated refinement.