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[Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk]: Around 1800, there was a big development in the Western
world, primarily in the production of crystal glass - that is colorless, impeccable crystal.
In the same time in Russia, something else happened; since the research of ::nihiel ramonnovsus::
in the 1740’s, Russians were very interested in the development of colored glass, which
was not paid any attention to in the West at all at the time. So by the time that cut
glass crystal has been developed and produced, the Russians were able to produce in the same
scale fantastic colored glass objects, and we see here a fabulous example that is a table,
with its amber glass pedestal and the blue glass tabletop. Something like this, as I
said, would not have possible to be produced anywhere west of Russia at the time at all.
The design for this table was made by Thomas de Tomon; he was a French architect who had
to leave France during the French Revolution. The table has apparently been made for Maria
Fyodorovna, the widow of Czar Paul I, for her palace in Pavlosk, near St. Petersburg.
In around 1800 and slightly after that, glass furniture became very fashionable, and it
is usually, as in this case, combined with metal work. If you bend a little, you will
see that the tabletop is beautifully attached to the pedestal by bronze leaves that form
almost an ancient capital. So the whole setup is almost like a Greek column: the base, the
column, which is here the amber pedestal, the capital, which is here the bronze leaves
that hold the tabletop. For this early time of glass manufacture the production especially
of the pedestal is quite astonishing because a huge piece of glass had to be blown, and
later it was cut in the spiral shape.