A Victorian electrotype gilt metal copy of a 17th century Augsburg silver pickle bowl, by Elkington & Co., the gilded original by Johann Baptist Weinhold (c.1640-1645) is currently housed in the Kremlin Museum, Moscow - it was donated by Queen Christina of Sweden to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1647. The pickle bowl depicts Apollo with lyre in hand raised on a tiered platform above a shaped circular dish with scrolling edge, the knopped, wide stem tapering to a lobed foot with three shell feet. This gilt metal (N.B. not silver) electrotype copy has applied lozenges to base reading 'VR, Elkington Dept. of Science' and 'Copyright Art & Science Dept', 37.5cm high Note: In the mid 1800s, an initiative was launched by Prince Albert and Henry Cole, the first director of the South Kensington Museum of London (now the Victoria & Albert Museum) aimed at 'educating the public mind to a due appreciation of the really beautiful'. To realise this objective, Birmingham silversmiths Elkington and Co. were granted access to several museum collections in Britain, Russia, France and Germany to create electrotype copies of their treasures. The goal was to ‘wed high art with mechanical skill’ and to distribute the electrotypes to provincial museums with the aim of 'disseminating good taste among the masses'. Elkington displayed a number of their electrotypes at the 1867 Paris Exhibition, which prompted a 'Convention for Promoting Universally Reproductions of Works of Art for the Benefit of Museums of All Countries'. It was signed by 15 European princes and is said to have laid the foundations for international cooperation between museums. Many thanks to Kirstin Kennedy at the V&A Museum for her assistance in researching this piece. Please refer to department for condition report https://collectiononline.kreml.ru/entity/OBJECT/61271?query=%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD&index=23