French hand painted porcelain plate c.1900, Paris, decorator's stamp "E. Galle". The cobalt blue border is richly gilded with foliage on a matted ground. The center is painted with the arms of Princess Catherine Yurievskaya (1847-1922), the second (morganatic) wife of Alexander II. In March 1881, Alexander II was assassinated and Catherine left Russia for France where she resided in Nice until her death in 1922.
Diameter 8 3/4 in. (22,5 cm). Mint condition.
sold
The left part of the shield is painted with black Imperial eagle (with cypher of Alexander II on its breast) over a gilded ground, the right part - with Romanov Griffin on a silver plated ground. Cyrillic inscription on the blue ribbon below the shield reads "For Faith, Czar and Fatherland".
