A Rsian Silver-Gilt Plique-à-Jour and Cloisonné Imperial Presentation Tankard Pavel Ovchinnikov, Moscow, 1892The lid marked for Pavel Ovchinnikov with standard mark of 84 and St. George for Moscow 1861-96, the base marked with 'NO' for Pavel Ovchinnikov and assay mark for Anatoly Apollonovich Artsybashev, 1892, sold together with a letter dated May 27, 1893, from Prince Cantacuzène on behalf of Tsar Alexander III on letterhead from the Rsian Imperial Legation, Washington DC, dated May 27, 1893, to A.W. Biddle.(H: 7, W: 6 in.)ProvenancePresented by Prince Cantacuzene on behalf of Tsar Alexander III to A.W. Biddle, May 27, 1893.Thence by descent.Footnote:NoteThis exceptional tankard was presented to Dr. Alexander W. Biddle (1856–1916) in gratitude for services provided to Rsia during the famine of 1891-92. Poor harvests throughout the 1880s had taken a deep toll on the agrarian peasantry of Imperial Rsia, and nationwide relief efforts began across America, including representatives of Philadelphia’s biness and social elite. Philadelphia was the first city to fund, organize, and dispatch a (the Indiana) filled with flour and other provisions, doing so in less than a month. The Indiana left Philadelphia on February 22, 1892, and arrived in Libau (the Rsian Imperial name for Liepāja, Latvia) on March 16. Apanying the ment were “the members of the Philadelphiamittee, Messrs. Blankenburg, Drexel, and Biddle.”The American aid efforts left a mark not jt on the Rsian populace and state apparat, but the Imperial Family as well. Tsar Alexander III told the American minister to Rsia: “I am very much touched by the interest and kindness which the people of the United States are showing in sending s of flour to my suffering people.” The generosity of the Philadelphians would not be forgotten. A year later, on May 27, 1893, the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer read “The Czar Rewards Friends In Need: Rsia’s Grateful Ruler Sends Costly Silver Gifts to Nine Leading Philadelphians.”To mark Alexander III’s decade on the throne, a great Coronation Day program of events was planned for Philadelphia; the flag Dimitri Donskoi and a second Rsian , the Rynda, anchored in the Delaware River overlooking the city. The Rsian Minister to the United States, Prince Cantacuzène, provided the media with the text of his letter to the gift recipients. This letter of appreciation was reprinted in full on the front page of the May 27th edition of the Inquirer; it is identical to the original letter from Prince Cantacuzène to Dr. Biddle, which apanies the tankard in this sale. Both Biddle and Drexel attended the events aboard the Dimitri Donskoi, and were recipients of gifts from the Tsar.“Each present possesses a distinct individuality and is conceded to be a chef-d’œuvre of the silversmith’s art,” the Inquirer observed, as well as noting that all were made in St. Petersburg — t