The interior of the lid is engraved with an inscription in Cyrillic, reading in translation: Awarded by her Imperial Highness Empress Catherine Alexeievna to serving army Captain Timofey Mironovich Vremev, for taking seven Polish standards after the assault on Praga. 1 January 1795.

According to the Christie’s 2012 catalogue, the recipient of the box in 1795 was Captain Timofey Mironovich Vremev (1774–1825), son of Miron Fyodorovich Vremev and his wife Elizaveta Matveevna Arapova. Descendant of a Moldavian family who had followed a Prince Cantacuzene into exile in Russia after the Russo-Ottoman war of 1710–1711, Timofey married first Natalia Alexeievna Martinova, with whom he had three daughters, and second Alexandra Iakovlevna Velikovich, the union producing a son.

It was not unusual for the empress to choose a box from her collections for presentation rather than commissioning a new box. In the present case the choice was particularly appropriate as the subject of the plaque depicts a presentation and the borders of the box are richly chased and enamelled with a garland of laurel leaves and berries most suitable for a hero.

Vremev’s life was to end in a less noble fashion and with unfortunate consequences. During the course of an all-night gambling session, the retired colonel was accused of cheating and was beaten up by the three other players, who included the romantic composer Alexander Alyabyev (1787–1851). Vremev died a few days later, it was thought as a result of his injuries, possibly a ruptured spleen, and Alyabyev was arrested and tried for his murder. As the evidence was not conclusive, Alyabyev was sentenced to exile in his native town of Tobolsk where he remained until 1831.

The subject on the lid of this sumptuous box depicts the Judgement of Paris, one of the best known and most widely reproduced paintings of Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807). It was first engraved by William Wynne Ryland (1738–1783) and published in 1778, so would have been the height of modernity at the time it was chosen for this box. The typical Hanau painting of the plaque and the way in which the red dress of the central figure of Athena is picked up by the striking translucent red enamel inner border of the box leaves no doubt that the plaque is original to the box.

It is probable that both plaque and box were painted by Ignaz Peter Krafft (1745–1810), who worked in Hanau between 1779 and 1799 before moving to Vienna with his son, the historical painter Johann Peter Krafft. The en camaïeu decoration of the box is particularly interesting as it marks a transitional stage between trees painted to resemble dendritic agate and fully developed monochrome land and seascapes such as those on the two recorded signed Krafft boxes, where a profusion of small figures, boats and banner-flying towers fill the scene and the dendritic branches remain only as dots.

The marks on the box, a crowned E, crowned F and a rather crude rosette, looking more like a daisy than the Paris ‘buttercup’ charge mark of Julien Alaterre, have been identified by Seelig as those of Esaias Fernau. Among the many combinations of marks attributed to Fernau and his company, this particular set also appears on a box in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, the lid set with an enamel plaque, the ground simply engine turned within enamel borders painted with tree agate.

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