One of the oldest works of Russian decorative and applied art is a large silver bowl with a decorative inscription. It was evidently intended to be passed round and belonged to the Prince Vladimir of Chernigov, son of David and first uncle of Prince Igor who is the hero of the famous Old Russian The Lay of Igor's Host.

The Armoury. Engraving. Early 19th century

      The ornament and figures of saints on the gold cover of the early fifteenth-century Vladimir icon of the Holy Virgin are executed in the basma technique (stamping on a thin sheet of metal). The twelfth-century Byzantine icon, which was particularly revered, used to stand in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin and is now in the Tretyakov Gallery.
      A fine specimen of fourteenth-century silverware is the reliquary of Archbishop Dionysius of Suzdal intended for various relics from Constantinople. It is in the form of a four-pointed cross topped by semicircles. Here we find various types of artistic metal-working, such as carving, filigree and enamelling. One of the inscriptions tells us that the reliquary was made in 1383.
      One of the rare dated works of art is a folding icon executed by the chasing technique with the use of gilding and filigree by the master Lukian in 1412. The representations of saints include St. Deme-trius of Salonica, the patron saint of warriors, and St. Cosmas the Healer. This icon was probably a talisman of one of the princes of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod, whose treasures were transferred to the Kremlin after their principality became united with Moscow.

Altar Cross. Russian workmanship. 16th century

      A most valuable specimen of Old Russian art is the Assumption Cathedral Gospel of the first quarter of the fifteenth century, decorated with illuminated miniatures and letters which in composition and colouring are similar to the works of the great Russian artist Andrei Rublev. The Gospel cover, which is made of gold, is the only one to have survived from this early period. It is decorated with filigree work, precious stones and haut-relief chasings of saints.
      One of the finest examples of Russian filigree work is the silver cover for a manuscript Gospel of 1499 presented to the Assumption Cathedral by Metropolitan Simon.
      In 1486 on the orders of Ivan III two silver gilded reliquaries in the form of single-domed churches were made for the Assumption Cathedral. They became known as the Large and Small Zions. They are decorated with niello birds, fish, animals and also relief chasings of the apostles and prophets.
      The Armoury contains a large collection of gold and silver brati-nos, spherical drinking vessels.
      They are extremely varied in shape and finish. The bratina of Eudoxia, wife of Prince Michael, son of Theodore, is decorated with bright enamel on gold; the silver bratina presented to Tsar Michael, son of Theodore, and the presentation bratina belonging to deacon Mikhail Danilov are fashioned in the Russian tradition with chase foliate ornament.
      Bratinas were used not only as vessels at feasts, but also as funeral bowls which were filled with honeyed water and put on the coffin. Examples of this are the brati-nas on the coffin of Tsar Michael's daughter Tsarevna Eudoxia and on the coffin of Ivan the Terrible's son Ivan, killed by his father.
      Of considerable interest are the gold and silver kovshs which are well represented in the Armoury. They are shaped like boats and were used at feasts for drinking various types of mead, such as bee, soft fruit, cinnamon and clove mead. "Red" mead was drunk from a gold kovsb and "white" mead from a silver one. The kovsbs. too, had a variety of forms and uses: small ones for drinking from, and big ones as bowls, like the silver kovsh of the Prince Kubenskoi, for example, with its openwork ornament and carved birds, or as measures and storage vessels. The collection includes some very fine, beautifully shaped specimens, such as the gold kovshs of the tsars Boris Go-dunov and Michael, son of Theodore, a silver one belonging to Ivan the Terrible, and kovshs bearing the names of Ivan, Peter the Great's brother, his mother. Tsarina Natalia, and his sister, Tsarevna Sophia.