First published in 1961, The English Silver in the Kremlin explores the history of English silverware gifted to the Russian Kremlin during diplomatic exchanges between 1557 and 1663. In the year 1880 it became known that the Moscow Kremlin contained the largest collection of Elizabethan and Early Stuart silver visible in one place. Charles Oman, in the autumn of 1958, was the first person from England for fifty years to be allowed to handle this amazing treasure and examine it in detail.
The collection is composed mainly of pieces carried by embassies sent to Moscow to safeguard the trade privileges won by the English merchants. Mr Oman has been able to use these discoveries, linking them with English documents hitherto neglected. He shows that the plate was seldom new when it left England. Some of it had graced the Banqueting House in Whitehall; other pieces had been gifts to the sovereign from loyal boroughs or belonged to members of the Stuart court. A remarkable story is revealed, ranging from the fantastic Russia of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov to unfamiliar aspects of Early Stuart commerce, finance and administration. The silver itself is superbly illustrated; many of the photographs were taken in Moscow specially for this book. This book serves as a valuable resource for historians and enthusiasts of silverwork and diplomatic history.