Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna Service (1795–97)

The Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna Service was manufactured between 1795 and 1797 for the marriage of the eldest daughter of Paul I to Archduke Joseph Anton of Austria in 1799. Designed in the Neoclassical style popular in the second half of the eighteenth century, the forms of the objects repeated the crockery of a service originally commissioned by Catherine the Great for Count Alexander Bezborodko.

The service was decorated with views of Ancient Roman architecture in medallions. The miniatures were based on engravings by Giuseppe Vasi and Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose works were often utilised by the painters of the Imperial Porcelain Factory. The architectural views were surrounded by golden borders and scarlet rosebuds.