A similar pair of Agate Mousse Tazze
Russia 1797
Adorned with a small hard stone basin of round shape, resting on four feet in chiseled and gilded bronze; posing on later jasper plinths;
representing four heads of animals symbolizing the four evangelists: Lion (Saint Mark), Bull (Saint Luke), Angel (Saint Matthew) and Eagle (Saint John).
In the center appears a snake surrounded on a base decorated with branches of laurel leaves and surrounded halfway up by a frieze decorated with a crescent moon,
a cross, a triangle and a sun. The whole rests on a square base, bearing the inscriptions engraved in Cyrillic characters: “To Jacob Moudriy (The Wise) on behalf of Matvey Mudroff”
and “born on April 30, 1722, died on April 7, 1797 in Vologda” alternated with Masonic symbols.
Measurement: 21.5 cm high, 8 cm wide, 7 cm deep
History: this object was offered to Matvey (Mathieux) Yakovich Mudroff (1776-1831), famous Russian doctor who founded the Russian clinical school. He graduated in medicine in 1800
at the Moscow University and became a professor there in 1809. Mudroff was one of the founders of military hygiene and took part in the fight against cholera epidemics in Saratov in 1830-31
and in St. Petersburg in 1831, where he died of this disease. He was the medecin of the Pushkin family.