This extraordinary plaque (together with the following two) is certainly most likely one of the infamous Botkin Enamels, a group of presumably imitation Middle Byzantine cloisonné enamels acquired by the Russian art collector Mikhail Petrovich Botkin around 1900. M.P. Botkin was an avid collector of myriad types of art and antiques and a prominent figure in the cultural world of St. Petersburg at the turn of the Century. Himself a painter, he specialized in religious subjects and there are examples of his work in the Tret’iakov Gallery and other museums throughout Russia. He was elected to the Academy.
The fine quality enamels produced by the house of Fabergé and other St. Petersburg ateliers, attest to the fact that at the turn of the century the city was preeminent throughout the world for the production of high quality enamels. Of the various interesting theories surrounding the origins of the large group of 160 plus enamels from the Botkin Collection, perhaps the most likely is that they were produced either by moonlighting craftsmen from the Fabergé workshops or one of the other top St. Petersburg establishments. Fabergé certainly produced “Byzantine” style enamels. (See H.C. Bainbridge, Peter Carl Fabergé, (London 1949) for a medallion of Christ Pantorator, incorporated into a panagia by Henrik Wigstӧm; and also Geza von Habsburg, Fabergé, (Munich 1987), No. 136, p.147 for a portable triptych in the Byzantine Style by Michael Perchin). When Carl Fabergé’s son Agathon, left Russia in 1928, he had with him two Botkin enamels.