An important Coalport dessert plate from the Nicholas I Service, circa 1845An important Coalport dessert plate from the Nicholas I Service, circa 1845Painted to the centre with the badge of the Order of St. Andrew, a raised gold lobed band around the cavetto, the border with six further badges for the Orders of St. George, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Vladimir, the White Eagle, St. Stanislaus and St. Anne, all within elaborate shaped gilt cartouches, reserved on a deep blue ground, with a gadrooned rim, 25.4cm diam, retailer's mark for A B and R P Daniell, 129 New Bond Street and 18 Wigmore Street, LondonProvenanceProperty from an International Private CollectionThis plate is from a dessert service commissioned by Queen Victoria for Tsar Nicholas I on the occasion of his state visit to England in 1844, known in Russia as the 'Coalport Service'. The original service comprised 62 plates and was delivered to St. Petersburg in 1845. The design copies the William IV service by Flight, Barr and Barr which was made to celebrate the Coronation of King William IV in 1831, but the English insignia were replaced with Russian Orders. The Emperor was so impressed with the service that he ordered a further 124 plates to match from the Imperial Porcelain Factory so that it could be used at state banquets. A matching dinner service was later ordered from Coalport in 1849. A specimen dessert plate for the service, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no.3386-1901), was produced for the Great Exhibition in 1851 where it was greatly admired. In 1934 several plates from the original service were sold by the Narkomat for Foreign Trade, but many of the surviving pieces are in the State Hermitage Museum. See Michael Messenger, Coalport 1795-1926 (1995), p.27 and pp.219-22. Another dessert plate from this service was sold by Bonhams on 1 June 2006, lot 247.