Moscow Service

In the 1780s, Catherine the Great commissioned a large service from the Gardner Factory for the new palace built by Charles Cameron in Pavlovsk. The service was called the “Moscow Service” (because the plant was located near Moscow) or the “Own Service.”

The objects were decorated with the gold initials of the owners, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Fyodorovna, inside green medallions with an oval gilt frame. The green borders were decorated with purple and gold ribbons intertwined with a purple garland of flowers.

Many of the surviving pieces are now in the collection of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo and the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. Some objects bear Catherine the Great’s blue monogram (E II), as the Imperial Porcelain Factory also contributed to the service.