#Exhibit of the Month

The history of silverware goes back over 5,000 years, but only in the 3rd millennium BC, in Mesopotamia and Anatolia, the first pieces of processed silver were made. From there, the art of working with silver spread to Persia and to Europe, where already in Roman and Greek antiquity it reached a high level of skill. Many of the techniques used then, such as casting, embossing and engraving, are still used today.

The National Museum of History of Moldova possesses a rich collection of silver items, which in a special way reflects the everyday life of people of the 18th-20th centuries. The typological range of objects that make up the collection includes both secular and ecclesiastical silverware: fruit vases, bonbonnieres, cutlery, tea and coffee preparation and serving sets, salt-cellars, handbags, snuffboxes and cigarette cases, candelabra, as well as icon cases, chalices, pectoral crosses, candlesticks, and so on.

Products of renowned jewelers, such as Fabergé, Khlebnikov, Sazikov in Russia, Elkington in England, Christofle in France or Norblin and Fraget in Poland stand out for their special quality and luxury. A significant item in the museum's silverware collection is the teapot on a stand with a spirit lamp (bouillotte), made in the Christofle workshop in France.

The Christofle workshop was founded in Paris in 1830 by Charles Christofle. The workshop, which was the court supplier of the Emperor of France Napoleon III, the Emperor of Mexico and the Tsar of Russia, created decorative and household pieces of rare beauty. It was also highly appreciated by the Royal House of Romania, which granted the workshop a supplier patent. In 1842, Charles Christofle bought a patent for electroplating, a technique that involved first coating a metal base with copper and then with nickel and silver. It was this technique that allowed him to mass-produce silver tea sets, which were very popular at the time. Tea, brought to Europe in 1610 by the East India Company, was an expensive commodity that gradually gained popularity. The oldest preserved teapots, dating from the 1670s, were small. As tea gained popularity, larger teapots began to be produced, shaped to match the fashion of the time.

According to Christofle catalogs, the model was produced in 1868 and fascinates with its elegance and refinement. The teapot has a complex design including a pear-shaped container, the surface of which is ornamented with guilloché in the Louis XVI style of the late 1780s. In the upper and lower parts of the body it is decorated with a border with tulips on protrusions, and in the center, it has an escutcheon with an engraved double frame. The teapot is equipped with a folding basket-like handle decorated with triple rings, and a lid with a knob. There are two rivets on the teapot for attaching it to the stand. A spirit lamp with a straight handle and a device for lifting the wick is fixed in the middle of the stand. The item has the Christofle stamp and is made of nickel silver.

The teapot on a stand with a spirit lamp, made in the Christofle workshop, harmoniously combines the value of a unique object and a sample of a large industrial series.

Dimensions: H.: 43 cm; W.: 24 cm.

Virtual Tour

Chronological Axis

Aeneolithic Age

(late 5th millennium B.C. - early 3rd millennium B.C.)

The archaeological collections related to this period are the most representative ones. The development of material and spiritual culture testifies to the existence of different communities of farmers and nomadic cattle-breeders. Representatives of the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture inhabited the vast territory from the Carpathians to Dnieper for about 1,500 years (late 5^th millennium B.C. – early 3^rd millennium B.C.).

In the territory of the Republic of Moldova there are known more than 600 settlements of farmers, some of which were archaeologically investigated: Floresti, Rogojeni, Rusestii Noi, Radulenii Vechi, Petreni, Varvareuca, Brinzeni, etc. At this time there were first produced metal (copper) items. Tools made of bone and stone are predominant. The earthenware collection is remarkable for the variety of vessels decorated with carving or painted in diverse ornamental styles. The ornamental compositions contain cosmologic scenes, astral symbols, fantastic animals, and anthropomorphic deities. The spiritual life of the communities is represented by an impressive collection of zoo- and anthropomorphic figurines.

At the same time in the south of the Prut-Dniester area there was spread the Bolgrad-Aldeni culture represented by an impressive material.

Cattle-breeding tribes from North-Pontic steppes, which are represented here by the archaeological monuments of the Suvorovo-Novodanilovca and Cernavoda type, played an important part in the history of Aeneolithic communities. The stages of transition from the Aeneolithic to the Bronze Age in the Prut-Dniester area are represented by the archaeological cultures like the Brinzeni, Gordinesti, and Usatovo ones, which have harmoniously combined elements of the Cucuteni civilization and features of the cultures of the North-Pontic cattle-breeders identified with the ancient Indo-Europeans.

1.Vessel, the Bolgrad-Aldeni culture

2.Vessel, the Bolgrad-Aldeni culture

3.Female figurine of “Orante” type, the Bolgrad-Aldeni culture

4.Painted amphora with zoomorphic representations, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

5.Head of anthropomorphic figurine representing a slipping female deity, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

6.Anthropomorphic top of lid representing male deity, the Early or the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

7. Female figurine sitting on the zoomorphic “throne”, the Early Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

8.Female figurine, the Early Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

9.Stemmed “fruit dish” vessel with lid, with incised and excised decoration, the Early Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

10.Stemmed “fruit dish” vessel with incised and excised decoration, the Early Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

11.Stemmed “fruit dish” vessel with painted design, the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

12.Painted anthropomorphic amphora with lid, the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

13.Painted amphora with representation of the Great Goddess possessing animals, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

14.Female figurine, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

15.Bowl with zoomorphic representations, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

16.Painted pear-shaped vessel, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

17.Painted vessel, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

18.Female figurines, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

19.Female figurines, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

20.Painted amphora, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

21. Copper items, the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

22. Painted dishes and bowls, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

23.Painted vessels, the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

24.Binocular vessel, the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

25.Figurine of a bull, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

26. Painted vessels: lidded anthropomorphic amphora representing a female deity and bowl, the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

27. Binocular vessel, the Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

28. Fragment of design of a painted amphora with zoomorphic representations, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

29.Fragment of design of a painted amphora with zoomorphic representations, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

30. Fragment of design of a painted amphora with zoomorphic representations, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

31.Fragment of design of a painted amphora with the scene of a ritual dance, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

32.Copper axe, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

33. Bone daggers, the Late Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

#Exhibit of the Month

Teapot on a stand with a spirit lamp (bouillotte)

Aeneolithic Age

(late 5th millennium B.C. - early 3rd millennium B.C.)

#Exhibit of the Month