Fabergé gilded silver and shaded cloisonné enamel kovsh, workmaster Feodor Rückert, Moscow, 1908-1917
This large and imposing cockerel-form kovsh is based on the oldest connections between the ancient vessel and the form of a bird. Interestingly, it reverses the essential form. While the prow usually serves as the “head” and the handle as a swimming bird’s tail feathers, in this case the bird has been turned around to face the interior. The exterior is decorated with stylized flowers, feathers, and berries ornament in shades of blue, brown, peach, green, and black with most of the forms picked out with fine silver wires or twisted cables. The handle has been cast and chased in the relatively realistic form of the head of a cockerel with a red coxcomb and long, curling feathers.