Alexei Ratkov

Jeweller, silversmith. Hallmark: ?.?. Born in the family of Ivan Ratkov (mid-18th century). Possibly trained as a silversmith while serving under Count Vladimir Orlov, youngest brother of Count Grigory Orlov and director of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1766–74). Worked in Moscow (from 1777), where he made silverware in the Rococo and Neoclassical styles. Created religious girdles (1777, 1779), stoups (1778, 1783), cross stand (1779), cut-glass decanter (1779), platters presented to Catherine the Great (1780, 1787), communion cups (1781, 1783, 1800, 1804), samovar (1782), cross (1782), jug (1783), bowl (1787), incense holder (1787), tot-glass (1788), box (1788), paten (1788), holy-water basin (1791), tabernacles (1792, 1801), Gospels covers (1793, 1795, 1800, 1802, 1807), trophy (1795) and icon cover (1798). Died in an unknown location (1821). Contributed to exhibitions, including Golden Treasure Trove of the Russian Museum at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg (1998), Russian Silver of the 18th–20th Centuries from the Collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums at the Samara Regional Museum of Art in Samara (2007–08) and Il Tesoro del Cremlino at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (2011).