BY THE GARDNER FACTORY, ST. PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1780

In 1777, Catherine the Great issued an ukaz commissioning the Francis Gardner Factory to make services decorated with the ribbons, badges and stars of the more important of the Imperial Orders (St. George, Saint Andrew, Saint Alexander Nevskii and Saint Vladimir) for use once a year at the Winter Palace, where the knights of each order dined on their appropriate Saint's Feast Day. The Gardner factory finally produced uniquely Russian services, rather than mere copies of European models. Saint Andrew and Saint Nevskii numbered thirty knights each, and these were completed in 1780. The cost was considered enormous, 15.931 rubles in all, 6,000 rubles for the Saint George service alone. The services so pleased the Court that in 1783, Catherine II issued another ukaz for the service for the Order of Saint Vladimir, numbering 140 knights, which was completed in 1785.